A Second Chance
by BlackJackHero
Summary: Sold-out by his friends and renounced by the Arc family, Jaune has no choice but to leave Beacon due to his transcripts. But, thanks to an offer from Ozpin himself, Jaune will have the chance to fulfill his dream of becoming a huntsman, at Atlas academy.
1. Chapter 1-The Curtain Rises

**Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY, the only thing that belongs to me here is the story idea.**

**(Chapter 1)**

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Before today, the teen would've rejected that phrase with all his heart. But now? Jaune believed in it with all he had. The teen had suffered a great deal in the last weeks, but today made him question everything. Did he still want to be a huntsman? Could he be?

"To think…all this started because of that night on the rooftop with Pyrrha."

**(Flashback- Night on rooftop)**

"I'm a fraud Pyrrha! I didn't GO to any huntsman preparatory school, I got myself forged transcripts, just so I could even get a foot in the door." Jaune watched as the spartan eyed him, mouth slightly agape, and eyes shaking. He continued, "I'm the son of an accomplished huntsman. My dad refused to train me at all, so I made do. I practiced with a wooden sword on my own in the forest for years, and never got any better because I had no teacher. And every time my dad caught me trying to train, he'd take the sword away, and ground me for weeks at a time."

"…" Seeing that his partner stood quiet, bangs shadowing her eyes as they stood under the moonlight with the lampposts below them, Jaune couldn't hold it in anymore, as years of frustration at being overlooked by his family came flooding out.

"So, one night, I decided I was going to get out of his shadow. I took all the money I saved to that night and took some from our family's account along with crocea mors and left. I made it on a bullhead and got myself all the way to Vale. Found a cheap hotel, where I worked for free in exchange for a room. And applied to Beacon academy. I used the money I had to buy some forged transcripts from someone and eventually made it all the way to and through initiation."

He paused and looked up at his scarlet haired teammate. By now there was a stream of tears falling from her emerald eyes as she looked to the ground with an unreadable expression. And then all to sudden, her eyes found him again. She wiped her tears, and slowly strode forward, unsure of what to say.

She stopped once she was right in front of him, before he tilted his eyes to meet hers, and was met with a hard slap to his cheek. He fell to the ground from the force his partner hit him with, eyes stinging from the pain emanating from his cheek.

"I can't believe I, no, any of us ever trusted you Jaune." The young man froze as the words left her mouth. He didn't expect this from Pyrrha, the one who would agree to any half-witted idea he devised without hesitation while wearing a smile.

"Pyrrha, I-" He tried to speak but was cut off.

"NO! You listen Jaune." He was petrified at the presence she seemed to suddenly exude, nodding as he sat on the ground looking up to his partner.

"Do you even understand how much danger you put us all in by doing this?" He paused to think about it, before hesitantly nodding his head. He watched as her eyes narrowed and mouth shifted to sneer at him with disgust as her tone reflected more and more of her anger.

"You do. You came to an academy where risking life and limb is a frequent occurrence, with absolutely no plan but 'Get better once I'm accepted.' You knew that you wouldn't be able to handle the level of work expected of us right out of the gate, and planned to piggyback off us, your team, until you were competent enough. And to top it all off, once you became our leader, you waited this long to tell one of us who our friend was?"

Jaune could do nothing but listen to her list his deeds, and shamefully lowered his eyes to the ground as he said nothing, confirming her accusations.

Pyrrha just stood silent for a moment, before turning on her heels and leaving him alone on that rooftop. Jaune realized that Pyrrha came from a different walk of life than him, she saw what he did as lacking integrity, untruthful, and illegal. And while she was right, Jaune was never proud of what he did, and he really did put in his all to everything he's done so far so that he could become better a better leader, a dependable friend.

"Hey Jauney-boy, interesting conversation I happened to hear just now."

Jaune's blood ran cold as he turned to the edge of the rooftop where another teen was now climbing up from. Cardin Winchester, a bully who had taken it upon himself to make Jaune's life hell, had just overheard his worst secret, and wore a devilish grin that promised suffering.

**(present day)**

Pyrrha had confronted him the morning after that night while their team was asleep, telling him that he could either tell Nora and Ren of his crime, or that she would tell them herself. Jaune tried to prove to her that he could be better and made the mistake of telling them everything all at once, with no plan to fall back on. Nora walked over to the blonde, having thought he was joking, but upon getting close and feeling how tense he was, she realized he was serious. She instantly no longer saw Jaune as team JNPR's "Fearless Leader," and as just Jaune, a selfish guy just like any other, before walking past him, and out of the room wearing a somber smile on her face, her mental image of a selfless leader shattered.

Ren just stared at Jaune, disappointed in his leader. He said nothing, just shook his head disapprovingly and went to join Nora. Jaune bit his lip in frustration, before hearing Pyrrha comforting the rest of his team from behind him, shutting the door and leaving him to reflect, alone.

The worst of his suffering was fresh on his mind however, as yesterday still haunted him.

**(flashback-Forever Fall Field Trip)**

Jaune had been bullied by Cardin before, but the dynamic was different now. Cardin was able to make him submit without any effort whatsoever. Cardin or his team needed something, he would be the one to get it, team CRDL needed their homework done, he finishes it, they need to bully someone to let off some steam, he was their man. Today had him slightly perplexed though, as the task made no sense.

Team CRDL was lounging about as Jaune was tasked with drawing six jars of tree sap, one for each person present, so what was the sixth jar for? Jaune finished his assignment before carrying all the jars and setting them down by Cardin.

"Hey Cardin, i-it's all done man" Cardin cracked an eye open with a cocky smirk on his lips.

"Jauney-boy! Perfect, now we have everything we need. Come on, follow me." He 'suggested as he and the other members of his team all stood up and started walking to a different part of the forest, nearer to where the other teams were.

Suddenly, Cardin stopped his advance, and stood on top of a high hill, beckoning for Jaune and his team to join him. Jaune stood next to Cardin, flanked by the member of the bully's team, before looking down. Below him, he saw the other member of team JNPR as well as team RWBY collecting sap. Jaune instantly had a very bad feeling creeping down his spine.

"Hey, uh, C-Cardin? What are we doing here…" Jaune began before a jar full of sap was thrust into his hands. He looked down confused before Cardin explained.

"Well you see Jauney-boy, your partner down there? She really pisses me off. So, here's what you're gonna do. You're going to take that jar of sap and throw it at her. The sap inside," He took the box Dove had been carrying, shaking it to elicit a buzz from inside. 'Rapier Wasps,' Jaune discovered with fear. Cardin continued "Will draw these little guys to attack her once she's covered in it." Jaune looked positively mortified at Cardin's plan.

'This isn't just bullying anymore; someone could really get hurt!' Jaune thought to himself. He stood their holding the jar, knowing that if he didn't throw it, he would be in trouble with the team surrounding him, but if he did throw it, he could kiss any chance of making up with his team, and staying at the school goodbye.

"Damned if I do, damned if I don't." Jaune said at a volume that no one could here, before turning to face Cardin while gripping the jar tightly.

"I won't do it Cardin." He held his head high despite the fear he felt and stared defiantly at the bully.

"…Come again Jauney-boy? Because it almost sounded like you told me no, and you really aren't in a position to do that are you?" The threat wasn't concealed at all, it was a promise of pain if compliance wasn't given. Jaune stood his ground, gripping the jar tighter and tighter before feeling the pressure of the last two weeks overwhelm him and move him to do something no one expected.

He threw the jar, at Cardin. It shattered upon impact with the teen's armor plate, covering his chest in a scarlet colored syrup. The world seemed quiet as Jaune realized what he had done, before he heard a chuckle.

"You _really _shouldn't have done that." Cardin's team burst into movement, moving to restrain Jaune before he could come to terms with what was occurring. Once he was secured by CRDL, they dragged him deeper into the forest following behind a seething Cardin, before reaching the clearing they were resting in earlier, and proceeding to beat the blonde into submission. "Let's see how much of a man you really are-" A roar cut Cardin off. The ginger-haired menace and his team froze and turned around to see an Ursa, attracted likely by the negative emotions being emitted by the group, as well as the forest sap that now coated Cardin's chest plate, if it glaring solely at him was any indication. It let out a deep growl before rising to stand on its hind legs, standing at an intimidating 16-feet tall.

Cardin took his weapon into his hand, and looked to his team for support, but was angered when he saw them abandoning him with Jaune, leaving them to their fate. Cardin was knocked from his thoughts of retribution when the Ursa sent him flying with a swipe from its mighty paw, his weapon fell away sailing from his hands giving him no defense against the bear grimm. The bully watched as the Ursa ignored Jaune in favor of him and lumbered forward towards him until he was mere inches away from him. From the corner of his eyes, Cardin noticed Pyrrha arriving at the edge of the tree line with Ruby and Weiss in tow, just as the soulless abomination raised its paw to end his life. He shut his eyes as the paw came down, prepared for the end, when he heard the telltale sound of something impacting metal.

Cardin opened his eyes, shocked to see his victim for the last weeks standing in front of him defensively with his shield raised, not giving an inch in the battle of strength between him and the Ursa. Jaune grit his teeth and looked back to Cardin as the grimm began to slowly push down more against the boy, tipping the scales in their contest of power.

"Cardin! Move! I can't roll away with you behind me!" The blonde teen commanded. The bully, still to overwhelmed to argue, just nodded and scrambled away from behind Jaune, rushing for his mace. Jaune seeing that he was clear, took a deep breath in preparation, before angling his shield and rolling away from the attack.

"Cardin! I'll distract it, hit it from behind!" Jaune instructed to the bully as he began to run around the bear grimm.

Cardin having recovered from his shock, wore an angry face of indignation as he glared at the blonde.

"Who put you in charge Jauney-boy?!" He shouted back with an edge.

Jaune blocked another swipe from the grimm, before jumping back to dodge the follow-up attack sent his way and leveled a searing glare towards the ginger with his teeth bared in annoyance.

"Do you have any better ideas asshole!" Jaune watched as the boy recoiled from the aggression he was showing, before staying silent and just looking down to his mace.

"That's what I thought. Now, get your head out of your ass and let's kill this damn thing!" Cardin looked somewhat conflicted, before letting a deep exhale escape him, and walking towards the boy until he stood side by side next to him. Though reluctant to cooperate, he wore a cocky smirk as he raised his mace onto his shoulder and spoke.

"Fine, but this is the only time you and I are ever teaming up." Jaune just nodded his head at the teen and responded in kind, "I wouldn't have it any other way partner." Cardin shifted into a battle stance next to the blonde and spoke. "Then I'll follow your lead."

* * *

The girls couldn't believe what they were seeing. Weiss and Ruby were shocked at the display of, although hesitant, camaraderie between the two boys, but Pyrrha, while shocked at the development, was also angry that Jaune was willing to work with the ginger after all that had developed the past weeks at Beacon. A smaller, more rational part of her felt proud that her partner would still protect someone that tormented him and told her that she had no right to feel angry at him, since she had all but abandoned him. Conflict raged within the red head's being as she watched the boys operate, though clumsily, rather well for two had been at odds since the beginning of their time at the academy.

The two members of team RWBY both prepared themselves to enter the fray and help their friend, before a hand shot in front of both of them, forcing them to halt as they sent looks questioning the partner of the blonde currently battling for his life in the clearing.

"…Let's wait. I think the two of them have this handled." The two girls paused before reluctantly agreeing to just observe.

The battle didn't last long. Jaune would take a blow with shield so that Cardin could land one on the grimm from behind. This cycle continued before Jaune noticed the Ursa starting to waver. When it went to take a step forward, one of its legs gave out as it found itself on all fours, trying to regain balance. Jaune sent Cardin a look, and the ginger just nodded before returning to Jaune's side and following behind the boy in his charge against their bone masked foe.

Jaune was the first to strike. He quickly made a deep slash in the Ursa's neck, eliciting a roar of hate and pain, but before the grimm could make a move to retaliate, Jaune drove the bottom of his kite shield into the gash he made before quickly jumping back. Cardin then jumped high into the air, the dust crystal in his mace beginning to glow as he brought in down with all the force he could muster onto the top of Jaune's shield, propelling the shield downward and beheading the Ursa.

The girls watched in minor shock as the two spoke no words but displayed magnificent teamwork with their combined attack. The girls watched as both boys stored their weapons away and walked toward each other until they stood a few feet apart.

"…I'm sorry…for everything" The ginger's words surprised the girls who stood at the edge of the clearing.

"Apology accepted. For what its worth, sorry about your team ditching you." The instant apology from the blonde knight of team JNPR did shock the girls, but what spoke out to one of them, Ruby, was the tone of empathy and the somber frown the blonde wore.

"Listen, Jaune-" Cardin began to say before getting cut off by the blonde.

"No Cardin, you listen. I don't know what your problem is but pull your head out of your ass." At this everyone watched as the normally pushover-ish knight adopted a firm attitude before continuing to speak. "You want to be a huntsman. That means you protect people, human or faunus. It means you don't prey on the weak or people who look different, you protect them." Jaune watched as his words made it through to Cardin, something everyone thought impossible as the ginger lowered his eyes to the ground in shame, but he didn't relent. "You're a team leader Cardin. Don't be an asshole. You're supposed to be an example for your team, and for other teams, of what a hunter signifies." He leveled one last glare at Cardin, and the boy became slightly uncomfortable at the presence the blonde seemed to exude. "And don't ever mess with my team, my friends, again."

He turned away ready to leave the clearing, but suddenly Cardin called out to him.

"Jaune!" The blonde turned his head to look back tiredly to the ginger, waiting for him to say what he needed to. "The truth about your transcripts…there safe with me." Jaune shot him a look slightly disbelieving before he continued. "Russ, Sky, and Dove only knew I had dirt on you, I didn't tell them what it was. I won't tell anyone about your transcripts, you have my word."

Jaune just stared at the boy for what to everyone watching felt like an eternity before nodding to him and limping off, never noticing the girls in the tree line as he left.

"Pyrrha, what was Cardin talking about with Jaune's transcripts?"

**(Present Day)**

When Jaune woke up today, he was greeted with his team all sitting on their beds with their heads lowered in thought. When they noticed that he was awake, Jaune was informed that Pyrrha had told them of his bout with the Ursa, which shocked him because he never noticed she was there, but more so that she didn't help him. His blood ran cold however when she told him that she had told Ruby and Weiss about his secret.

His mouth was dry, and he was sure his eyes were starting to water. Ruby was sweet, innocent and trusting, and he knew he had nothing to worry about from her, but if Weiss knew? He quickly got dressed, saying nothing to his team as he did so nor once he left their shared dorm. He skipped his early morning classes as to not catch sight of team RWBY and to escape the animosity his team held toward him.

He was successful at staying off anyone's radars he felt, until he heard something that made his blood run cold.

"Would Jaune Arc please make his way to the Headmaster's office. Would Jaune Arc please…" The message began to repeat, but Jaune couldn't hear it over the blood rushing through his body and his thoughts screaming at him.

He slowly began to make his way to where his presence was summoned, body on autopilot and eyes dull, missing their shine as he trekked across the campus. All to soon, he found himself in front of the door to the headmaster's office. His heart was beating so hard he was surprised it didn't burst out of his chest and he was sweating as if he had just returned from running a marathon in the summer. He slowly reached his hand out to the handle, and as the cold steel met his hand, he slowly pulled the door open.

When he entered the room, closing the door behind him. He looked around at the occupants, eyes catching sight of Glynda Goodwitch, the deputy headmistress of Beacon, headmaster Ozpin, and a man with black hair holding a flask he didn't recognize.

"Mr. Arc, right on time. Would you like to take a seat?" Ozpin began with pleasantries as he sipped from his coffee mug.

"Thank you, sir." Jaune said with a voice devoid of any emotions as he took his seat.

"Do you have any idea why you're here Mr. Arc?" Professor Goodwitch began.

Jaune leveled his eyes directly to Ozpin who had his hands folded on his desk as he sat across from the teen before speaking.

"Yes." He answered evenly.

"Then you know what is going to happen." It was no question. It was preparing him for the words that would end his time of training to be a huntsman before it ever had a chance to bear any fruit.

"Of course. But can I ask a question." He said as he looked directly at both the deputy headmistress and headmaster. Glynda shot Ozpin a look before Ozpin answered.

"Yes Mr. Arc. What is your question."

"Who." Glynda decided to reinsert herself into the conversation hearing the blonde's inquiry.

"I don't see why you need-" She began before Ozpin interrupted her.

"Glynda." She immediately backed down, hearing the tone that left no room for argument from her superior. Ozpin shifted in his seat before answering the teen's question, with a question.

"Jaune, let me ask you this. Who do you think came forward with the information about your transcripts?"

Jaune paused thinking about those who knew his secrets, before he decided on who must have been the culprit.

"Cardin." Jaune's face held no contempt as his gaze fell to his lap, wearing a look blaming himself for believing the boy's claim. 'I should have known that not even his word was good for anything. I can't believe he-"

"I'm afraid it wasn't Mr. Winchester who brought this issue to our attention." The blonde teen's eyes shot up to the headmaster's in disbelief, before a look of hurt crossed into his eyes as they began to water.

"Was it…" He began but couldn't finish, already knowing the answer.

"Yes. The other members of team JNPR as well as team RWBY came forward with this information." Ozpin said, confirming the boy's fears of betrayal.

"I've haven't been this disappointed in a very long time Jaune." Ozpin's words somehow managed to make him feel worse than before, despite having no connection with the man personally. "But I am so very, _very_, disappointed in both your team and Ms. Rose's."

At this Jaune wore a look of confusion as he faced the famous headmaster. Disappointed in the others? Why?

Ozpin just smirked and continued. "Mr. Arc, I have been doing this for a long time, do you really think I didn't know about your transcripts being forged?" As he said this, Glynda shot a look of disbelief to the headmaster, that soon shifted to anger.

"Ozpin! You knew about his records being fake? He could have died in the emerald forest!" she began as her rage found its way to the white-haired man.

"To be fair, I didn't know his aura wasn't unlocked. If I had, I would have unlocked it myself." The man said as he shrugged. "Besides, he's passed initiation did he not?"

The man with the flask let out a loud laugh from the pillar he leaned on, reminding the fellow occupants of the room of his presence before taking a large draw from the flask.

"Qrow! This isn't a laughing matter!" Goodwitch shouted at the man now known to the boy as Qrow, who in rebuttal just shrugged and took another swig of his drink. She growled at him, before Ozpin spoke again, regaining everyone's attention.

"Regardless of the nature of your transcripts, I allowed you to attend Beacon because I felt that all the training you were denied you could be given, since you have something that can't be taught." He paused, "You Mr. Arc, are a natural born leader. Your ability to assess a situation and determine who is best suited to handle it as well as organize others into a cohesive unit, combined with your tactical prowess is not something that I wanted to let slip away."

Ozpin stood up from his seat and walked to the window behind him to gaze over Beacon Academy as he gave everyone a moment to think on what he'd said.

Qrow put his flask away before stepping away from the pillar he leaned against to stretch before speaking. "I know you don't know me kid, but look, don't beat yourself up over this. So what you didn't get in legit? You worked your ass off to get through initiation. I just can't believe firecracker and her friends would turn on you over this…"

"Firecracker?" Jaune let slip.

"Oh, that's right, forgot you don't know me. Name's Qrow Branwen. I'm Yang and Ruby's Uncle." Jaune's eyes widened in surprise.

"Wait. So you're the one who taught Ruby how to use a scythe?"

Qrow grinned widely, "So, the pipsqueak talked about her uncle? Yep, that's me, the best scythe user on Remnant." He walked over and shook Jaune's hand, before dropping down in the seat next to him, and continuing with a reminiscing look adorning his face.

"But listen, kid. Everyone does something bad. Yea, you didn't get here like everyone else, but you still got here, and you had good intentions. On one hand, what you did could've put your team in danger because of your lack of training. On the other hand, at least you lied about having training so that you could finally get some." He looked up to the ceiling and continued. "Everyone has dreams. How far you're willing to go to achieve them shows character. And I think you have a lot of it." The man said before getting up and moving to leave the room.

As he stepped towards the door that would bring him to the elevator, he looked back over his shoulder, and gave the blonde team some parting words.

"Good luck blondie." And with that he left the occupants in silence.

As Glynda looked furious at Qrow for seemingly condoning the actions of the team, she was shaken from her thoughts by Ozpin.

"Glynda. Leave me and Mr. Arc so that we may discuss his future."

She looked as if she wanted to argue, before just letting out a sigh glaring at Jaune and Ozpin and walking out of the room herself.

Both remaining occupants of the room were silent before Jaune took the initiative to start the conversation anew.

"So. What happens now?" He spoke with resignation.

"Well Jaune, the way I see it, you have three options. But regardless of what you choose, you will no longer be a student of Beacon after today." Seeing Jaune give a silent nod, he continued.

"Option one: we expel you and you try to make a life here in Vale as a citizen. No shame in that." He studied the blonde, gauging his reaction to the suggestion, and after seeing a cringe briefly appear, he continued.

"The second option: we expel you and you can try to find work on the wrong side of the law, but that would only serve to make things much more…complicated." Jaune's face shifted to one of disgust at the mere possibility of him joining the criminal underworld, and Ozpin nodded in approval of the boy, before voicing the last option.

"And option three. You withdraw from Beacon after we're finished talking, and I'll pull some strings to have you sent to one of the other three huntsman academies."

Jaune shot up straight from his seat before speaking. "You're not joking…I can still have a chance to become a huntsman? Please tell me you aren't making a cruel joke. Please…" Jaune was cut off by the older man's chuckle.

"Do I seem like the kind of man to joke in a situation like this young man?" Jaune shook his head without a moment of thought, before looking at the headmaster with a fire in his eyes.

"Sir, I'd like to formally withdraw from your academy." Jaune said, and the headmaster smiled in approval of the young man's choice.

"Accepted. I'll fill out the paperwork as I explain what is going to happen, and you choose which academy you want to go to, and since I have a sneaking suspicion you don't know much of the other academies," Ozpin wore a small smirk with an amused glint in his eyes as Jaune sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "I'll tell you about the others, and which one I'd recommend."

Jaune nodded, and Ozpin sat down at his desk. Pulling out some forms and signing them, having Jaune sign over all the specified spots before beginning his lecture.

"The other academies are Haven, Shade, and Atlas. Haven is in Mistral," upon saying that, he saw Jaune wince, and recalled that a small part of the young man's family is located in a city not far from Haven, which would make an unexpected, and unwanted, visit much more probable since Haven frequently televises the training of their students. Beacon, though being on the same continent as the majority of his family, would have allowed for the teen's whereabouts to stay hidden from the world until the Vytal Festival. "But knowing your circumstances, I'd imagine you don't have much interest in attending their academy."

Jaune nodded furiously at this, and Ozpin continued onto the others. "Shade is in Vacuo, which is on the same continent as us, but is drastically different in how they- sign there as well- operate. Vacuo is known for its beaches and deserts, and Shade academy has a…different teaching style than what would be considered conventional." At this Jaune tilted his head in confusion, finished signing everywhere required, and looked to Ozpin for clarity, causing the man to massage his temples in exasperation at just thinking of Shade's teaching philosophy.

"They believe that students don't need to be cared for, at all. Bullying is ignored openly even if a teacher is nearby, and fights can breakout on the academy grounds anywhere two students have a disagreement. They will teach you to be a huntsman, but you will learn to fight and defend yourself on your own. And being that they've already begun their classes, you'd almost assuredly be the 'odd man out' and would likely have more than a few fellow students looking to make a display of you."

Jaune stood silently as he deliberated over the shade academy opportunity. He would almost assuredly become stronger from the experience, but he could also find himself with a team full of lone-wolf types with no teamwork skills. Ozpin had begun writing a letter of some sort when Jaune finally spoke again. "And what about Atlas."

Ozpin adjusted his glasses and looked up to the teen from his writing briefly before continuing to write while answering him. "Well Jaune, Atlas was going to be my suggestion for you anyway. The Atlas huntsman academy resides in Atlas, obviously, which resides above mantle in the continent of Solitas."

"Above…Mantle?" Jaune looked to Ozpin confused, to which the older man just smirked and continued.

"Oh, believe me Jaune, I'd ruin the surprise, but if things go as I suspect they will, it'd be grander for you to see it for yourself, I assure you." Ozpin shook himself of his musings and returned to writing the letter. "But back to the matter at hand, it would be the best for you from an objective standpoint. Do you know what the four academies each do best?" Jaune shook his head

"Haven and Vacuo specialize in taking hunters who have adequate skills already and enhancing them further, either as a team in Haven's case, or individually in Shade's case. Beacon and Atlas are better at 'rebuilding a huntsman' brick by brick and developing a more solid foundation for their students to grow from. Beacon is the better choice for a young huntsman who needs to see things from a different perspective and learn to take things on from a different angle. Atlas is better however for someone who, like yourself, needs to be trained in all aspects of being a huntsman."

At this Jaune face shifted into a sheepish grin, before Ozpin continued. "There, you'll develop a combat style that is your own, or adopt one that suits you. You'll be given a partner by the headmaster after your evaluation and form a team with another partner pair. The four of you will share a dorm similar to how you did here at Beacon, and unlike here at Beacon, any huntsman training missions you go on, you will be paid for in preparation for the life of being a real huntsman." At this Jaune perked up, a chance to earn experience and get paid for it for was a dream came true for the blonde.

"Along with that any supplies you might need from clothing to ammunition will also be funded by Atlas due to their affluent nature." Ozpin put the finishing touches on his parchment, before folding it and sealing it in an envelope, sealing it with a wax sticker. He shifted his gaze to Jaune before speaking again. "Since you weren't born in Atlas, nor are you currently a citizen in Atlas, you will strictly be enrolled in the huntsman academy of Atlas only."

At the clarification, he silently asked a question with his eyes to the white-haired man.

"Ah. I forgot to clarify. Atlas' kingdom, academy, and armed forces all share one campus. Atlas doesn't get a lot of foreign students, and since most of their students are local, they typically join huntsman academy and take some of military or law enforcement hybrid classes. You, being a foreigner, will only be eligible to take the huntsman classes, and won't be able to join their military or armed forces unless you lawfully become a citizen." Ozpin explained to the teen. Jaune listened with rapt attention and made mental notes of all he heard.

Ozpin took a deep breath, before dropping the biggest bombshell about his plan on the young man. "And lastly, you will have to make, design, or purchase your own weapon so that you can participate in their combat classes." Once he said this, teen seemed confused, and didn't hesitate to voice it.

"Why would I need to do that? I have my family's sword." Ozpin leveled a sympathetic stare at him before he spoke softly. "No Jaune…you have the Arc family heirloom."

"But…that's what I just said?" Jaune questioned

"Jaune, think about what I'm saying. What happened up to this point, and everything in between. You don't have _your_ family's sword; you have the _Arc_ family's sword." Once this was said, the blonde looked down trying to read between the lines to discover what his former headmaster was saying, before his breathing stopped. He went pale, and broke out in a cold sweat, his breathing erratic. And all because of what he just realized.

He wasn't an Arc anymore. He had been disowned. Ozpin spoke again. "Once this was brought to Glynda, she did some digging and found the contact information for your parents and contacted them before she brought all this to me. They told me of their decision and that I was to inform you and send them Crocea Mors.

He tried to hide his pain, but his eyes were freely letting tears leak out, and his lips couldn't keep his quiet sob contained as he stood straight, refusing to break down in front of the man telling him he could achieve his dream. He just nodded his head and bit his lip, trying to force any tears in his eyes not to fall, as he reached down to his hip gripping Crocea Mors as if it was a lifeline. He closed his eyes, and brought his arm forwards, slowly and ever so reluctantly thrusting his family's-no…the Arc family's sword, towards the older man. As Ozpin's hands received the sword and sheath, he waited for Jaune to let go, knowing the pain the young man felt.

After a few painful moments of the blonde recalling the times the sword saved him, he let his fingers unwrap from the sheath, and slowly allowed his hand to fall to his side. Ozpin put the heirloom behind his desk and placed a business envelope on the desk, before asking Jaune of his decision.

"So Jaune, which of the other three academies do you wish to attend?"

Jaune stood quietly for a moment, thinking of which academy would best suit his needs, but thinking to everything Ozpin had said he realized his best choice was just as the headmaster said.

"Sir. I choose…" He took a breath to calm his nerves and steel himself, "Atlas." The white-haired man nodded to him, glad he could accept advice in a crunch, and addressed the envelope to one "James Ironwood" before handing it to the boy. Jaune took the packet tenderly, staring at his second chance, his opportunity to really earn his place in the world as a huntsman-to-be, before Ozpin interrupted from his thoughts.

"That concludes our business then young man. A bullhead will be awaiting you at the docks in two hours, it will take you to Atlas, you should arrive there around 7 p.m. You'll be escorted to the visiting student dorms, and tomorrow you'll have your evaluations done, and be assigned a partner and team within the week if I had to make an estimation." Jaune looked slightly off put by how soon he'd be on his way to his new academy. Before he just nodded to the headmaster and shook his hand.

"I'd head to your dorm room to grab your personal affects if I were you, and say any goodbyes you might have before heading straight to the bullhead docks." Jaune wiped his face and took a deep breath to regain his calm demeanor as he made his way to the door that would take him to the elevator. As he opened to door and began to make his way out, the white-haired huntsman halted him one last time.

"Jaune." The blonde turned to face him.

"Yes?"

"Since you're leaving Beacon on your own terms due to personal reasons, theoretically, if you wished to return to Beacon academy for your second and subsequent years of huntsman training, you'd just need your transcripts from Atlas." The man said with a smirk. The blonde's eyes widened slightly, before he returned the smug look to the professor.

"I'll keep that in mind, sir. And thank you. For everything."

"You are most certainly welcome young man. Good luck." And with that Jaune made his way out of the room and towards the elevator, his destination being the dorm he shared with his former friends.

* * *

"Do you think we did the right thing guys?" Came the inquiry of one Ruby Rose.

"Absolutely. That dolt always struck me as not deserving to be here, and this only proved it." The Schnee heiress spat out with disgust.

"Hell yea Rubes! He could've gotten his team or ours hurt because he isn't trained to do this." The blonde brawler of team RWBY voiced her thoughts, no regret present in her voice.

"…" Blake sat silent reading her book on the floor of team JNPR's room. She was conflicted on the matter. She had skeletons in her closet, ones that she was 100 percent certain would make Jaune's secret look like a molehill in comparison to her mountain. She just locked eyes with Ruby before nodding in confirmation,

Nora and Ren both sat in silence as their friends all voiced their opinions of Jaune and couldn't help but agree. He knew that he would be putting his future team in danger with his stunt, yet he still had the gall to attend and not tell anyone until he was threatened to.

"He makes me sick. He put us all in danger, he made me protect him all during initiation." Everyone was minorly surprised by the red-head's reaction, but remembered her upbringing of being modest, honest, wanting to protect people and being loyal. In her eyes he was none of those, and she refused to let his dishonesty get someone killed.

All the members of team RWBY and JNPR sat in the latter team's dorm, most of their conversations consisting of their formal friend, from ridicule to thoughts of what punishments he would or should undergo. Little did they know, he had recently been given a chance to prove himself to the world and show all his naysayers that he could be a hero.

Outside of JNPR, now just NPR's, door stood the blonde teen who was the topic of their conversations. He listened against the door as they insulted him behind his back, though knowing they wouldn't hesitate to do so in his presence. He refused to let them see his pain, instead he fabricated a look of bored indifference and took a deep breath as he entered the room.

All conversation ceased as he entered the room, before the temperature dropped slightly and the tension rose to tangible heights. He was met with glares, sneers, looks of disappointment, indifference, and one possibly of regret? He just raised a hand, and everyone watched to see what he would do next, before yawning and making his way to his bed. Despite the blasé attitude, if one was to look close enough, they might notice a glint of mirth at indulging in his scarcely shown petty side.

He pulled out his knapsack from beneath his bed and began to repack his personal items. The process took all of ten minutes and no one spoke a word as he did so. When he finally finished with the repacking of his items, he pulled out his scroll and gently set it down on the desk. Watching as he did, Weiss decided to be the first to break the silence that had befallen everyone.

"So Arc," This reopened the still very fresh would left behind by his recent disownment, but he ignored it in favor of keeping up his façade. "How does it feel to know that all of us have turned our backs on you, and that you haven't anyone to blame but yourself?" the former subject of the blonde boy's affection spat at him.

Jaune just lazily turned his head over before ignoring her, to her ire, and yawning once again as he began to inspect his former bed.

"Hey Vomit-boy! My teammate asked you a question, and I expect for her to get an answer." The blonde brawler of team RWBY said as she gave the boy a look that promised pain. The teen in question just looked at her, before chuckling and still refusing them an answer.

This set the blonde off, but before she could make a move towards the betrayed teen, he found himself held at the collar by his former partner. His eyes found hers, and both said nothing. After a minute of anxious silence, the blonde slapped the red-head's hand away from him and made his way to the door with his knapsack slung over his shoulder. He made his way to the door without hesitation, opening it and exiting with a ghost of a smirk on his face as he turned around before closing the door.

As he stood outside the door, he could hear the angry remarks his former friends made after his departure and looked to the ground. He watched as small clear orbs fell from his eyes as he thought of how he now had no one. He stood there in silence for a moment before he lifted his head up and made his way to the bullhead docks, wiping his tears away as he did so.

* * *

He was just around the corner from the bullhead docks, but he still had a half hour of time to pass before the bullhead would arrive to carry him to his new life. He was broken from his thoughts as someone came around the corner where his destination was. He looked up, seeing four individuals he thought he wouldn't see again for quite a bit of time.

In front of him stood team CFVY, looking as if they had just returned from a training trip, most likely in the emerald forest, if the dirt and scratches on their combat outfits were any indication. As a fifth body came around the corner, Jaune's eyes widened as he saw the state the student was in. Cardin Winchester had come around the corner behind team CFVY looking as if he had taken a stroll through a meat grinder. Scratches, bruises, burn marks, and a plethora of other telltale signs of a rather rough time littered the ginger-haired teen.

Team CFVY all had rather satisfied smiles on their faces as they conversed about something Jaune couldn't hear. He tried to make himself scarce, but before he could find a way to conceal himself, Velvet's eyes found him, and she waved to him with a rare wide smile and pep in her step, but it left as she saw immediately that something was wrong. He tried to quickly put his emotional mask back on, but before he could, the girl and her team surrounded him and immediately began to question him.

"Jaune, what's wrong?" The rabbit faunus asked him gently. The blonde covered his face with his arms trying to hide his tear marks, but his arm was firmly pulled down by the sunglasses wearing leader of team CFVY, Coco.

"Kid. What happened." He tried to mask how he was feeling but failed as a tear made his way to the corner of his eyes as he began to crack under the attention and care he was getting. He felt a hand on his back and looked to Fox, the silent martial artist teammate of Velvet, and another hand on his shoulder which belonged to the impassive, but caring giant of team CFVY, Yatsuhashi.

"I-uhm, I'm leaving Beacon…" at this, all members of the second-year team were alarmed. They began an interrogation of their underclassmen, trying to find answers to his sudden change of student status.

"Jaune, why would you give up on your dream? I've never met someone as pure-hearted as you that was determined to achieve their dreams. So why?" Spoke Yatsuhashi, and the rest of his team couldn't help but nod in agreement of the giant's words.

Jaune stood silent for a moment surrounded by his older friends and could only they wouldn't forsake him after he told them of his secret. As he spoke, Cardin had finally caught up to the second-year students in time to freeze as he heard what his former victim said.

"I don't have a choice…I wasn't going to be allowed to stay here after today."

"Jaune, what are talking abo-" began Coco, only to be interrupted by the blonde.

"I'm a fraud." As the words left his mouth, team CFVY stood confused.

"You're a fraud?" Coco asked.

"I didn't go to any huntsman prep school. I never received any type of huntsman training. I forged my transcripts and came here with no skills and no support." Team CFVY stood in silence, and at this the boy continued. "Ozpin and Ms. Goodwitch found out and I was called to talk with them, and they told me that I couldn't remain a student at Beacon." This time, Velvet was the one to ask the boy a question.

"But Jaune, how did they find out?" When she asked this, the boy's head snapped to her direction with an incredulous look painted on his face.

"W-what…" He stammered out.

"Velvet. Someone probably ratted him out." Coco spoke to the rabbit-eared girl.

Velvet's eyes steeled. "Jaune. Who told them?" She repeated

"You mean…you guys don't resent me?" He managed to croak out.

The brown-haired fashionista walked forward once he asked this before delivering a light chop to the top of his head. He looked at her as she silently took him into a hug. He stood there until Coco backed away from him and spoke.

"Jaune, you helped my partner out. I heard about how you stood up for her in the cafeteria, making yourself a certain ginger's target." As she said this, everyone's eyes found their way to said ginger who was now looking down to the ground in shame at his actions. After a moment of putting the former bully in the spotlight, her eyes went back to Jaune's own cerulean orbs.

"None of us share a lunch with her, so we couldn't come help her, but you did it without hesitation, and put yourself on the chopping block. That is something that I will be eternally grateful for. Who cares if you forged your transcripts? You still made it through initiation and are willing to protect people you barely even know. That's enough for me." Once she said that, the other members of team CFVY all nodded their head in agreement of their leader's words.

"Now. Who all knew about your transcripts?" The gunner asked him.

He took a moment to compose himself, before speaking. "Cardin," As soon as the name left his mouth, all heads turned to the boy to glare at him with murderous intent pouring from their eyes. The blonde spoke again, "my team, and team RWBY."

Once Coco heard of all the possible culprits, began to walk towards Cardin with her fury etched on her face, but before she could take more than a few steps, the voice of the blonde team she wanted to help shocked her.

"Cardin didn't do it." As he said this, the ginger in question let out a sigh of relief, and then all members of team CFVY, as well as Cardin, blood ran cold. Suddenly they began to understand how much pain the boy was in.

"I-it was the rest of my team and…RWBY that told them." He managed to mutter out, just loud enough that all present heard him.

He let himself lean against the wall of the building they were next to and slide down to the grass, burying his face in his hands as he retold the last few weeks he had suffered. He told them of him confessing his secret to his former partner, of the events that transpired in the Forever Fall Forest, of how he'd no longer be allowed to finish his first year at beacon, and of how he had been disowned. He also had let them know that he was being given a second chance in Atlas, and how he might even have an opportunity to come back to Beacon. He let himself cry and be surrounded by people who genuinely cared about him and didn't abandon him after learning of his secret.

After he finished his retelling, team CFVY looked murderous, all four members leaking both aura and killing intent. All of them seemed to have something brewing in their minds, but Jaune quickly stopped their trains of thought.

"Guys. Whatever you're thinking, don't. I'm not gonna stoop to their level, and I won't let you either." At this Velvet looked as if she was going to protest but was silenced at the mischievous grin the forlorn blonde wore.

"Besides, I have a plan." The smile he wore was infectious, for as soon as he said those five words, the elite second-year students began to copy his smile.

"What's your plan?" The question came from the guilt-ridden ginger in the back, but Jaune answered nonetheless.

"Get stronger. Strong enough to be able to fight at Coco's team's level." He said with a confidence that no one expected.

Fox shot Jaune a look that needed no explaining, asking the boy what came after getting stronger, something that all present wanted to know.

"Show them who they turned their backs on and prove to everyone that I _will_ make my dream a reality. The only thing I haven't figured out is where I would show off my strength…" The blonde trailed off as he began to try and think of a suitable place.

Cardin took the open silence to try and make a helpful suggestion.

"Hey Jauney-Boy, do you about the Vytal Festival?

* * *

Jaune looked up to the clock that sat atop an ornate post nearby and saw that he had a mere five minutes to get to the docks to catch his bullhead. He stood back up and picked up his knapsack again before slinging it over his shoulder. He promised to keep in touch, and team CFVY promised to keep an eye on team NPR and RWBY. As the older students left, Jaune was left alone with Cardin.

"So…why do you look like you just got done being a human crash test dummy?" Jaune inquired of the ginger, to which Cardin cringed before answering.

"I went to their dorm to formally apologize to Velvet for being…me. And while she forgave me, her team thought I needed to earn it, and so I went with them to the far end of the emerald forest to help them 'train.'" Jaune winced at the thought of being used as a punching bag by Velvet's team and felt a small pang of sympathy for the boy.

"Hey Jaune?" Jaune took note of the tentative tone the ginger teen was using.

"Yea? What's up Cardin."

"Listen, I'm really sorry about what happened with your team and your family…or former family." The boy paused, taking a deep breath before putting his hand toward the blonde "I know we aren't friends, and that I don't deserve it. But I misjudged you, and I want to repay you for everything."

"But why? What brought this on all of a sudden?" The former Arc asked.

"Look…yesterday showed me some things. My teammates aren't my friends, and I don't have any friends here at Beacon when I really think about it. All the people that hang around me are only doing so because they're afraid of what will happen if they don't." He paused. "I'm…still not exactly sure where I stand on the faunus yet, but Velvet is actually pretty alright, so maybe I'll try to be a little more…accepting."

Jaune was quite surprised by the boy, never having expected this much of a change. "Wow Cardin, you're actually really trying to change huh?" The ginger in question just nodded in confirmation as he continued, "Listen man, you don't have to force yourself to change overnight, but the fact that your willing to admit that you were wrong, and adjust how you do things, speaks volumes." Jaune took a step forward before gently putting a hand towards his former bully.

Cardin stared at it for a moment before looking up to meet Jaune's eyes as the blonde spoke.

"Friends?" The ginger didn't hesitate this time, meeting the boy in a firm handshake with a small smile.

"Friends." Cardin responded.

Around the corner of the building the older students walked down, a brown-haired, rabbit-eared faunus smiled and snapped a picture of the two from her hiding spot, before slipping away to catch up with her team.

* * *

The trip to Atlas via bullhead could be considered both blessing and curse for the young man.

Jaune suffered from motion sickness and had to resist the urge to empty his stomach contents several times in the first hour of the trip. But, thankfully, around the third hour into their flight, the boy began to be able to ignore the pulsating nausea he felt, or at the very least, push it away from the forefront of his mind. It gave him time to think of the five students who he was certain were his allies and friends. It also gave him time to plan out what he needed to do once he was a student in Atlas, which was what he was doing now on a small notepad he had pulled from his knapsack.

*step one-Get a weapon.

*step two-Make a workout regimen.

*step three-Figure out how to deal with lack of range (Maybe make this part of step one?)

*step four-Discover my semblance.

*step five- ?

The boy looked at his list, biting his lip in thought, before pocketing it with a sigh of frustration. He knew that he wanted to become stronger but had no solid plan on how to get as strong as the ones who betrayed him, loathe as he was to admit it.

"Hey kid, this your first-time seeing Atlas?" The pilot called out from the control pit.

"Huh? O-oh, yeah it is." The boy called back as he was shaken from his thoughts.

The pilot chuckled, "Then you might wanna come see this. The first view of Atlas is always the best."

The blonde teen tilted his head in confusion, before standing and steadily making his way to the cockpit of the aircraft. Once he reached the pilot's chair, he looked out the window, and stood silently in awe as the city slowly came into view.

Down on the surface of remnant was a city full of both stationary and moving glowing lights surrounded by a calm sea. The smoke from what they boy assumed were factories drafted upwards creating a veil like cover to the mountains behind the city, and a giant cloud hung mysteriously low above.

Jaune recovered from his surprise at the city full of life below him and pointed at the city below. "That's Atlas?"

The pilot just chuckled again before taking the bullhead to a higher altitude. "Heh. Nope. That's Mantle. THAT," The pilot gestured toward the giant cloud, and flew just high enough that the boy could see into the 'cloud.' Once again his look of bewilderment returned as he saw a city through the cloud, and when a particularly strong turbulence racketed the airship, reminding the boy of his motion sickness, it billowed most of the smoke directly in their path, showing an entire city suspended above Mantle. As Jaune took in the sharp architecture, noticeable from miles away in the sky, the aurora that danced across the night sky only served to further his fascination with what would be his new home.

"Is Atlas." The pilot said with a smug grin as he finished the sentence he had left in suspense, relishing in the speechlessness of the young man behind him.

"…Wow…" Jaune now understood why the ice-cold heiress now spoke so highly of her home country. He took in the elegance of Atlas, sitting down in the co-pilot seat as the pilot answered the radio chatter, responding about landing at the Academy.

As the bullhead finally touched down, the boy was grateful to finally be at the end of his 7-hour sky voyage. He grabbed his knapsack, and thanked the pilot, receiving a farewell and good luck from the transport specialist, before exiting the craft. Once he was off the loading ramp of the bullhead, the craft took off into the night sky, and the blonde teen looked out over the city of Atlas from the academy landing pad.

"Ah, I see your right on time." A voice from behind him said, bringing him back from his sightseeing. He turned to see a tall man with short black hair, in what he could only assume was a military coat of a high ranking official, if the fancy cut of the clothes he wore and air of command that rolled off him in waves was any indication.

"U-uhm…yeah-I mean yes sir-" the boy began to trip over his words as he tried to ascertain what would be the correct way to address the man. The man in question chuckled at the state of distress the boy found himself in trying to be polite, before speaking.

"At ease. I'm General James Ironwood, headmaster of the Atlas huntsman and military academy."

"I'm Jaune. Jaune A-" A flash of painful recollection flashed in the boy's eyes, something that didn't go unnoticed by the general. The boy quickly regained him composure and shook his head before speaking again.

"Just Jaune." The headmaster looked him over before addressing him again, the smile leaving his face as he began to question the teen.

"Ozpin told me about your…circumstances. You have my condolences for what you suffered before you came here. But Atlas is different from what you experienced at Beacon." He turned and began to walk away, motioning for the boy to follow close as he began.

"Here, you will be given a chance to become stronger, smarter, and ultimately, someone who can save lives. Since Ozpin spoke so highly of you, as did a certain drunk old bird, I will personally have high expectations of you. Do you think that you can meet them?" The general asked as he glanced over his shoulder behind him, and he wasn't disappointed when he saw the determined look that was now on display for all of Remnant to see as he stared back at the older man.

"Give me this chance, help me figure out how to become stronger, how to save lives. And I won't just meet them, I'll shatter them." Jaune responded with certainty. The general made a sound of thought, before turning his head back to look forward as they walked.

"Since you aren't eligible to participate in military classes, you will be given a team later in the week after you complete your assessment tomorrow comprised of students who also are only enrolled in the huntsman portion of the academy." The man thought to himself silently, already knowing the team that the blonde would be help form.

They walked in silence for a while longer, before the older man stopped in front of a door, pulling out a keycard from the inside pocket of his coat and using it to unlock the door to the room they stood outside of. He pushed the door open before motioning for Jaune to enter.

The blonde teen walked in a observed his temporary abode. It was clean and had more than enough space for a single student to reside here in comfort. He set his knapsack down next to the desk, and heard the door start to close behind him. He turned to look at the general, and Ironwood spoke to him from the hallway as he prepared to leave.

"Tomorrow morning at 0700 hours, someone will arrive here to take you to do your assessments, and once those are completed, fill out the paperwork make your enrollment here official. I wouldn't stay up to late tonight, you'll need your energy for tomorrow. If you find yourself hungry, take the elevator down to the first floor, and take a right once you get off, you'll walk straight down until you can hear the other students." And with that, he closed the door behind him, leaving the young teen with his thoughts.

* * *

Jaune let out a yawn before beginning to lay out the clothes he had with him to see what he would wear to the cafeteria. He had a few other sets of clothes as well as a second pair of boots that he had bought when he was back at beacon.

He settled upon a darker pair of blue jeans as well as a black button-down that he'd leave upon exposing the plain white undershirt he wore beneath it. As he finished changing into his new clothes, he looked back to the Pumpkin Pete's hoodie he always wore, as well as the boots that had 'left' and 'right' written on the soles. The memories that threatened to plague him were shook away and he placed them into the trash can on the side of the desk. As he made his way to move, he stopped as he reached the door handle, before making his way back to the knapsack and taking out a bright, baby blue onesie, and tucking it under his arm as he made his way out to the hallway.

As he made his way to the elevator, he saw a larger trashcan, and with haste deposited the embarrassing pajama into it, never to be seen again, and made his way to the cafeteria.

Lunch was a rather interesting affair. The cafeteria had plenty of students present, and once he entered, a few sets of eyes had focused on him, but after a few moments, returned to what they were doing previously. He had made his way to the line, and after a five-minute wait, had found himself sitting by himself in the corner of the cafeteria near the door that led to the hallway.

He had told the cafeteria staff he didn't know what he wanted to eat from today's selection, or what the selection was, and so they choose for him and handed the blonde his food with a knowing smile. He ate in silence, savoring the food he had chosen for him, and sent a wide smile to the woman who had given him his food, who nodded to him. He saw that everyone else was leaving their plates at a designated area, so once he finished, he mimicked their actions before heading back to his room.

Once there, he took a shower before changing into a pair of shorts and kept his shirt on to wear to bed. He turned off the lights before he climbed into bed, marveling at how soft his mattress was, and reached onto the nightstand to grab the television remote. He turned on his T.V. and lowered the volume so that it would serve as background noise and looked up to the ceiling as his eyes began to slowly shut as he thought to himself before falling asleep.

'Once tomorrow comes…Everything changes.'

* * *

**(A/N)**

**Hello Everyone, I'm BlackJackHero. I'm going to use this A/N to quickly go over some things and hopefully give you an idea as to what I like in a story as both reader and writer.**

**(1) This is the first story I have written, ever. And I sincerely hope you all are looking forward to reading more.**

**(2) Jaune and Penny are my favorite characters above all in RWBY, and because of that, their story is coming first. Also, because I'm positive some of you will have questions as to how their relationship will work, I won't say much, but do know that Penny is still an android/artificial human. Their relationship will be tested, and they are going to have to figure it out themselves at a pace they both agree with.**

**(3) I can't answer most of the questions I saw in the comments without ruining what is my favorite story telling device, surprise, but I have already had weapons in mind for him. His semblance was something I had to think on, but I have decided on one that I think will compliment him perfectly for this story. As much as I'd like to see Jaune attain crazy strength, he is going to have to earn it, and I wanted his semblance, at least in this story, to not be something that lets him completely disregard danger and adversity.**

**(4) I'm a sucker for romance, but also enjoy a story with good action, adventure, well detailed fights, and titanic amounts of suspense, just as much.**

**(5) I have quite a few stories that I intend to publish here, but this will be the story on the front burner for the moment.**

**(6) I re-read this chapter and found some minor errors and edited them.**

**(7) Thank you all for taking the time to review and tell me what you thought. As for a schedule for this story, I'm going to try for once a week at least, but once every two weeks at worst. Since I've never written on this scale before, I'm not sure what updates will be like, but this is my goal.**

**I'm BlackJackHero, and I'll see you once the next chapter is finished.**


	2. Chapter 2-Welcome to Atlas

**(Chapter 2)**

The day following the betrayal of the loveable blonde began differently for the students of Beacon who knew Jaune personally. Team NPR all awoke at Pyrrha's alarm, the clock reading 6:30 a.m. After quick showers, the three members didn't even spare a glance at the empty bed that sat the furthest to the right. Ren and Nora found themselves in the cafeteria so to indulge in the pink-clad bomber's pleasure food while Pyrrha made her way to the courtyard to begin her morning exercise.

The leader of team CRDL stirred from his sleep the first few rays of the rising sun had snaked through the drapes, falling upon his face. He let out an unintelligible mumble as he rose from his bed and made his way to the bathroom to complete his morning rituals. Once done, he exited the bathroom in his uniform, and could feel his blood pressure spiking as his gaze fell upon the sleeping forms of his teammates.

The boy dropped his anger after trying, and failing, to melt through the skulls of Sky, Russel, and Dove for abandoning him to man kind's enemy, the feeling of regret seeping into his being instead. The ginger knew that their actions stemmed from the treatment they had been given by him, but that still didn't excuse their cowardice. They all had their weapons present on their persons, so where did their will to fight and protect go in the face of all huntsman's sworn enemy? Still debating on what he should do about his situation, Cardin grabbed his gym bag before he exited the room silently and made his way to the gym to blow off steam and keep his body in tip top shape.

Meanwhile, the four second years of team CFVY were all returning to their dorms so that they could relax before their classes. Having awoken at 5:00 a.m. in accordance with the giant broadsword wielding member of their group, they had spent their time doing their own, more intense physical training. Upon reaching the room, the clock read 7:30, and after short showers for each of the members, they sat on the floor and engaged in group meditation, which they would continue to do until classes began.

Team RWBY's dynamic had been…off in comparison to the other teams that were involved with Jaune. Weiss was all too pleased that the blonde she dubbed a talentless idiot was gone and awoke particularly pleased that she would go a day without hearing any shamelessly poor attempts at flirting aimed at her. Now that her perceived bad influence for her sister was gone, Yang didn't really think much about anything that had to do with Jaune, her thoughts more focused on going to groom her hair before class to turn heads.

Ruby and Blake however were much more…reserved. Blake wasn't happy with what happened to the former leader of their sister team, but also supposed that it may have been for the best. Blake knew that the blonde didn't deserve what happened to him, but also knew being determined could only take one a certain distance, so maybe having to leave Beacon would keep him alive. She could only hope that if her friends ever found what skeletons she kept in the closet, that she not receive the same treatment.

Ruby still questioned if telling the professors about his transcripts was right or not. Even though initiation had been a disaster, they all made it out alive, and when push came to shove, Jaune was willing to fight off grimm to help everyone, even with his lack of training. Any time a more Yang-influenced part of her brain tried to find counter arguments to the betrayed teen, she was already pointing out more good things about him. Her mind in conflict over her former friend, she would lay in bed until classes began with her guilt slowing building.

* * *

"Ms. Nikos, would you mind staying behind after class?" The voice of Glynda Goodwitch called out to the spartan teen of NPR after having dismissed her class. The scarlet headed student in question began to wonder why she was being asked to stay but nodded nonetheless and walked over to the desk of the teacher as her sister team and friends followed the rest of the students filing out of the room.

"We'll wait for you outside Pyrrha." Came the voice of her sole male friend Ren. At his declaration, Nora just nodded to the girl with a thumbs-up and a smile of reassurance as they closed the door behind them.

She turned to Glynda as the classroom was now devoid of occupants save for her and the huntress. "What did you need me for Professor?"

The blonde teacher cleaned her glasses, before addressing the student. "The headmaster wanted me to give you some information as to what would be happening due to the change in your team's status." She took a moment to observe the younger girl, but upon seeing little change in the girl's expression save for a tightening of her lips and an ever so barely noticeable narrowing of her eyes, saw fit to continue. "Since there are no three-man teams here at Beacon, and for a plethora of reasons that you needn't concern yourself with, your team's vacant position will be filled by a student by the end of the week."

Pyrrha just nodded in acceptance of the message that had been relayed to her. "I understand Ms. Goodwitch, I'll let my team know as well. Is that all?" The girl said, eager to reconvene with her friends who were waiting for her outside the room.

"Yes, Ms. Nikos, that is all. Oh, but splendid performance in class today, you and your team are exceeding my expectations." At this, the scarlet-haired girl blushed, as while she was used to praise from her family and civilians, to receive it from an accomplished huntress was humbling. Pyrrha nodded her head and made her way to the door at a slightly faster pace, causing Glynda to just shake her head with a small smile at the girl's actions.

* * *

On another continent, Jaune had just finished three of his evaluations. His morning routine so far had consisted of a medical exam, physical tests, and a combat evaluation. All he had left to complete was his written exam.

His medical exam was by far the quickest, showing that the boy was cleared to begin at the academy and was in perfect health with no threat to his health or others. The physical test wasn't quick but was the most pleasant for the young man as Jaune saw all the minimums he had to meet for each test and decided to go further than what was required so that he could boast his state of fitness.

The combat evaluation had taken the larger portion of his morning and had left him rather exhausted. The combat evaluation consisted of the blonde teen battling in a simulation against a Sabyr, and he was given a generic metal sword and shield to use for the test. Having never seen the grimm before, he took his time to slowly analyze his opponent whilst being on the defensive, earning himself a few glancing scratches, but nothing truly serious. After roughly five minutes of studying his opponent, Jaune was satisfied in his assessment of his enemy, and he moved to dissect the saber-toothed grimm, trying different attacks to find what would be the best course of action.

Upon cutting off the tail, he discovered that the grimm was in a state akin to agony, as it worried more about its wound than its opponent, which had been the last mistake the simulated being of hatred made. As the simulation fell apart, Jaune could only marvel at the accuracy with which the simulation had to have replicated the bone masked terror with and filed the information away so that he would know how best to combat the grimm should he ever face one in reality.

For his next combat evaluation, he was tasked with fighting a small group of seven older Atlesian soldier robots all carrying auto-rifles. Their combat patterns being slightly more predictable, the boy wasted no time as soon as test began, charging into the enemy frontline with his shield raised to add to his charge. As the soldiers just finished booting up as he reached them, the metal soldier at the forefront of the group was sent flying back from the impact.

Wasting no time, he turned and kicked the robot to his right back, before he swerved to the left bringing his sword down on another steel soldier. He was rewarded with the sight of a sloppily bisected metal skeleton falling apart, before he back to the soldier that he had kicked seconds ago and lunged towards it with his sword ready to pierce as it was trying to return to its feet. It ceased its movement as Jaune's sword found its way to where the human heart would be and fell to the ground as the blonde pulled his sword free from its chest.

Shots rang out from his left where the other soldiers had finally begun firing as they no longer had to account for friendly fire. Jaune took a few hits, aura dropping slightly as he did so, and dived back to where the two halves of the bisected metal soldier lay motionless. He picked up the upper half of the deactivated robot, and used it as an impromptu meat shield, and once the soldiers ceased firing to reload their weapons, he threw the steel body towards two of the remaining soldiers, earning him the sight of a tangle of steel limbs.

The battle continued for a short while longer before Jaune had managed to defeat all his foes, beheading the last robot after he disarmed it. He had lost more aura than after his bout with the Sabyr but was still resting comfortably at 65 percent. After completing his combat test, he was permitted a half hour of break before he would be given his written test, which he was in the process of doing currently.

* * *

"…What kind of test is this…" The blonde couldn't help but ask out loud to the room he sat alone in. He reached his hands up and tousled his hair in irritation as he looked down to the paper containing the questions he was required to answer, letting loose a huff of frustration at the nature of the questions.

*Question 1- You can save either a single person immediately but doing so will likely cause the death of ten people as a result. Conversely, you can save the group of ten, but will have to leave the lone civilian to their fate to do so. What course of action do you take?

*Question 2- A highly dangerous criminal has escaped his prison cell and managed to free the other prisoners in his block, causing panic among the guards at the growing prison riot. You are nearby and can either assist the guards in quelling the riot or chasing down and apprehending the culprit. What do you do?

*Question 3- Due to a grimm attack, _your_ aura is low, weapon(s) are broken, and are fatigued. A family has taken shelter in a building behind you and are radiating fear which is attracting the nearby grimm. There is a bullhead with a boarding ladder ready above you. You can either leave the family and board yourself, or let the family embark while you stay and wait for reinforcements. What choice do you make?

*Question 4- How did you reach your answers?

The blonde stared up to the ceiling in thought and began to wonder what the purpose of this test really was. "These aren't questions that someone would normally have to answer. These are all theoretical, so really there aren't any wrong answers. But…I feel like I'm missing something here. Jaune scanned over the test for any clue as to how he may have been supposed to answer, before he finally noticed it. With a small smirk, the blonde picked up his test and folded it, before standing from the desk and making his way to the door.

Once outside, he was met by his proctor and questioned as to whether he had completed his exam, to which the blonde confirmed he had. He was given directions to the general's office and instructed to make his way there, where he would hand his paper to Ironwood himself.

As Jaune stood outside the large doors to the headmaster and general's office, he couldn't help but begin to second guess his decision, but just as any doubt entered his mind, the doors to Ironwood's office opened to the boy autonomously, and he was greeted with a space full with screens adorning the walls, accompanied by plaques as well as framed medals, ribbons, and commendations.

The older man who had been waiting for the teen's arrival stood behind his desk, looking out over his academy and beyond, turned to glance over his shoulder to acknowledge Jaune with a nod of his head. Jaune took this as his sign to come in, faintly noticing the subtle sound of the doors closing behind him.

"Welcome Jaune. I hope the tests weren't too hard." Ironwood said as he turned back to look out over the nation he was responsible for protecting.

"No sir. I actually enjoyed the physical assessments." The blonde said with some appreciation in his tone.

The older man made a sound of thought as he continued to stare out over Atlas, and to some degree, the edges of Mantle that were not obscured by the smoke rising from the city below. "Jaune, come take a look over Atlas from where I'm standing for a moment."

The teen just tilted his head in confusion before complying, walking around the desk carefully, and took the spot of the general as the militant man moved to the side to allow Jaune to gaze from his favored spot.

Unlike the first time, the blonde's breath didn't hitch when he looked out over the city, he had his first glimpse into an architectural masterpiece and technological utopia cemented in his mind, never to be forgotten.

But as he stood from where he imagined the general did each day, the afternoon sun falling over the sharp shapes and accentuating the artistic designs of the rooftops and towers he stood above, he couldn't help but stand silent and appreciate the view he was allowed, respectful of the quiet beauty glowing from Atlas, as well as the bustling hearth that could be called Mantle that was just barely visible from where he was, but ever present.

"It's a view that never tires. Wouldn't you agree?" The voice of Ironwood inquired, cutting through the silence, reminding him of who he was in the company of.

"Sir, I've only seen a view of Atlas, including today, three times. And while it will never beat the first time, I wish I could see Atlas like this every day." The blonde teen softly replied.

"Well then, what do you see?" The older man asked with interest, hoping to learn more of the student who had managed to earn the favor of his friend who was much older than many could ever hope to understand.

Jaune stood quiet, thinking. He knew that the headmaster wasn't asking that literally, but he took a few minutes trying to organize his thoughts into a sensible explanation, and upon failing to do so turned to face the taller man.

"I'm…not sure general." The teen responded almost meekly. The older man simply turned his head to look back out the window, body still turned towards the teen as he spoke.

"Would you like to know what I see then?"

The teen just nodded his head in response and the man continued.

"I see lives. Lives that will begin today, some of whom will have especially bright _futures_ and live long so that they can share everything they've experienced with someone they care about.

I see lives that will continue today. People who haven't lived as long as some but have lived longer that others as well. People who are in the process of making their stories, _living _their life, and growing from the adversities they face and rising from the challenges they conquered.

And I see lives that will end today. Those who have lived longer than you or I and have experienced what life had to offer them. Those who will tell stories to the younger generations and are reminders of times long past." Ironwood turned his attention back to the young man across from him before finishing his speech.

"And it's my duty to protect the lives of everyone outside of this room that reside in this nation, both as General Ironwood, and as a huntsman of Atlas."

As he finished his statement, Jaune felt as if he began to understand the disciplined man a tad bit better. This wasn't a man who was respected because he was general, this was a man who was general because he was respected. He was charismatic in a way Jaune wouldn't have expected.

Ironwood, deciding he had made his feelings about his home clear to the blonde teen, decided to switch gears.

"Sorry to seem so philosophical. Now, I believe you have something for me?"

Jaune remembered his original purpose for coming, and fished the folded parchment from his pocket, before handing it to the older man. The headmaster accepted it wordlessly before moving to sit at his desk and unfold it to observe the document. Jaune walked from his spot behind the desk and took a seat across the headmaster as he observed his test.

Jaune sat in silence as Ironwood raised his eyes from the paper back to him with an amused ghost of a smile on his face.

"So, is there a reason you left the answer slots blank?" the Atlesian huntsman asked.

"Yes sir." Jaune responded with a rare expression betraying no emotion.

"And that would be?" At the question, Jaune cracked a small smirk, that evolved into a full-blown smile as he answered.

"Because by _myself_, I would have to make these types of decision, where I can't save everyone. But, with my team, we could save everyone, so that we wouldn't have to prioritize any one life over another, so that we could make sure everyone lives to continue their lives to the next day."

Hearing his response, the older man gave a satisfied nod, before asking another question. "And how did you reach this conclusion?"

Jaune just shrugged his shoulders before saying something that would speak volumes of his character to the headmaster of Atlas.

"I want to be a huntsman, and we're strong alone, and stronger together."

James sat back in his seat, thinking on the words he had heard the seventeen-year-old transfer say, and was just possibly beginning to understand why Ozpin took such a shine to him. He pulled out a form from the top right drawer of his desk and signed it, before handing it to Jaune. Jaune took the paper he was handed, before his eyes widened.

It was an acceptance letter into Atlas academy. HIS acceptance letter.

He felt a hot wetness from the corner of his eyes and wiped them away quickly before saluting the man to show his gratitude.

"Thank you, Sir! I swear, you won't regret this decision." The blonde declared with butterflies in his stomach.

The general just waved him off, and watched as the young boy turned, prepared to end his day of tests and trials, before he felt the need to test one more thing.

"There is one more thing, if you'd indulge me." At his statement, the boy whipped back around ready and eager to help in any way possible, waiting to hear the man's request. Ironwood rose from his desk and made his way to an octagonal table on the right side of the room, and once there, gestured for Jaune to join him but to stand on the side of the table opposite him.

Jaune stood there in slight confusion, before the tabletop began to glow and he was greeted with the hologram projection of a familiar board game he loved playing. "Conquest? You play?" He asked all to shocked to find that the leader of a country's military played the same tabletop game he did.

Ironwood just nodded before eluding as to why. "Yes, yes I do. It's a rather good game to teach tactics as well as discover something that other games or tests can't really discern. Judging by your reaction, I believe its safe to assume you play as well?"

"Yes sir, I know all the rules and it's something I enjoyed playing for fun in my downtime."

"Well then young man, let me see how good you are. I'll be playing as Atlas if you couldn't guess, so choose your nation and we'll begin."

The blonde teen though about his three remaining options, mulling over the pros and cons of each nation, before making his choice.

"I'll choose Vacuo." The newly minted student declared, to which the general nodded. As the holo-table began to generate the field, James asked two questions of Jaune before they began their battle of wits.

"This game has been around for a good amount of time, and while they still add new expansions, it is mostly the same. How long have you been playing?"

The blonde thought for a moment as his cards were displayed in front of him via holoprojection.

"Since about a week after the game came out. Roughly." The teen replied.

Internally, James winced, if the boy was even half as competent a leader as Ozpin had eluded to him being, the coming contest wouldn't be an easy win.

"I see…and who taught you?"

"My grandma-former grandmother, Joan D'Arc." The blonde was lost in his thoughts of his loving grandmother, and remembered how the only letter he'd gotten from his family after becoming a beacon student was from her. The weathered woman knew him so well that she sent a very touching letter to a combat academy, _knowing _that he would be there attending. She said that no matter what, he'd always have her support, regardless of wherever the nomadic woman was.

Time flew by as the two played their game, but around the time the first rays of sunset began to seep into the room, Jaune lost the game, something that both players expected, but their reactions were drastically different. Jaune's stomach made a loud rumble and noticed that it was well into the afternoon before bidding farewell to the headmaster and returning to his temporary quarters. As the door again closed behind the blonde, the headmaster of Atlas stood silently in thought observing the field of his match.

He did indeed beat the younger man, employing tactics and showing no mercy or quarter against the student, and in the end assured his victory. However, the young man was certainly no slouch, in fact, the general considered him to be quite the tactician as he scanned the field and began to re-watch certain segments of their match. Overall, despite the victory Ironwood achieved, he won the war of the game at an unpayable cost.

Both parties realized that the younger man stood little to no chance of winning, so instead of trying to reach a goal that was unrealistic, he opted to make sure that the win gave him no spoils of war, and would leave his country lacking in every department. From forcing them to increase their national debt, to culling the number of soldiers left fit for battle.

If this scenario had played out in actual war, both countries would have succeeded in wiping each other off the map if the conflict had escalated to this point. It was more likely that a ceasefire would have been agreed upon much earlier back. Jaune may not have realized it yet, but he had the makings of a brilliant tactician, and a damn scary one in James' eyes.

* * *

**(Three Days Later)**

Jaune was standing in one of the many indoor training arenas of Atlas' academy. He was told to be here at 1600 hours to meet his new partner but arrived thirty minutes early so that he didn't make anyone wait. Although part of him was excited to meet his new team, he was also bone-shakingly nervous. More than once he had to force himself to stop shaking his leg and refuse the urge to pace. His teeth chattered so much wondered if he was cold, or nervous, or both.

He looked up to the clock and saw that it read 15:45 and started to sweat bullets as a bit of self-doubt and panic set in, enough that he never heard the door being opened of the footsteps approaching from behind him. Until the owner of said voice spoke, scaring him from his thoughts.

"Sal-u-tations!"

Jaune screamed in surprise, twisting around to face whoever managed to successfully sneak up on him, and was greeted with the sight of a girl shorter than him with an exuberant expression on gracing her features. She had orange hair the same color as a sunset and wore a white blouse under a grey dress with back trim and electric green accents. On her legs she wore thigh high black boots with the same shade of green accents. Tying the look together was the pink bow in her short hair and black neck collar that served to really bring out her lime-green eyes and thousand-watt smile.

"…Come again?" Jaune said intelligently.

"Salutations!" The girl said again, not losing any of the joy her tone originally held as she greeted the blonde again.

He just stared at her for a moment before recalling his manners and stammering out a greeting.

"O-oh, I-uh, um, what brings you here-wait! That's impolite, I'm sorry-I" The blonde took a minute to quit speaking and gather his thoughts after having failed at returning the girls greeting, before trying again.

"deep breaths…Hi, I'm Jaune." He managed to finally say to the girl. This only served to widen her smile somehow as she picked up the conversation from that point.

"I'm Penny. Penny Polendina, and it's a pleasure to meet you Jaune!"

"Likewise Penny." He replied with a smile on his face, successfully having calmed his nerves, before recalling something important.

"Wait…not to be rude if I'm wrong, but I'm supposed to be waiting to meet someone here." As he said this, Penny raised a hand to offer him a small wave before she spoke. "Indeed! I look forward to working with you partner!"

At this Jaune relaxed visibly, relieved to know that the first student he's held a conversation with was to be his partner. He watched as Penny eagerly grabbed a hold of his hand that had hung from his side with both of hers and gave him an enthusiastic, if not slightly comical, handshake. Upon letting go, she gave him information that had been told to her by the general.

"Alright Partner, I was given instruction from the general to tell you that you and me will be partnering together for the rest of our time at Atlas, and that starting today, you and I will be residing in the student dorms; fourth floor, room 404, where we will meet our other two teammates. Any questions?" The bubbly girl asked to the blonde who had paid rapt attention to the girl once she mentioned the headmaster.

"Nope, I guess I'll head to my room and grab my stuf-" She was quick to cut him off before he could continue his train of thought.

"No need Partner! The general took the liberty of having it moved to your new room for you."

"Oh, well if that's the case, then do you wanna lead us to our new room?" Penny nodded her head and began to walk forward with a bounce in her step, leading the taller teen as they made their way to the door, when she heard Jaune talking, most likely to himself she deduced, in a quiet voice.

"This is good…this is good. I made it in, I'm about to meet my team, and thanks to Penny, I finally have a friend here. She's kinda quirky, but so what? I'm pretty odd myself." He continued to mutter under his breath for another few quick moments before bumping into something, causing him to take a minor step backwards. He tilted his head down and came eye to eye with Penny who had a tentative look on her face as she asked him.

"What did you call me…" She inquired slowly, making eye contact with him.

"O-Oh, I-I'm really sorry, I was uh…talking to myself. I didn't know you could, um, hear me…I'm really s-"

"You called me your friend." Once she said that, he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding as she continued. "Do you mean it? Am I really…your friend?"

Jaune took a moment to smile at the girl before nodding down to her, "Absolutely! Why wouldn't you be Partner?" He replied with mirth, the girl looked at him for any signs of deceit, but upon seeing none, her shining smile returned, and she took him into a hug, wrapping her thinner arms around his torso in happiness.

"Sen-sational! I can't wait to tell my father about you Friend Jaune."

'Friend Jaune?' the boy thought to himself, now something seemed odd about the girl, but finding out what it is was second to attaining air.

"That's great…Penny…but-need…air…" Penny gasped at how hard she must have squeezed him, before apologizing profusely and helping him off the ground.

"I'm so sorry Friend Jaune, I didn't mean to-" This time, the blonde cut her off so that she wouldn't feel guilty for hurting him accidentally.

"Its…okay Penny, just…gimme some warning next time." The blonde breathed out between large gulps of air, flashing her a small smile of his own. The ginger-haired girl just watched him for another few moments as he collected himself, before nodding her head, smile returning.

"Alright Partner, let's go meet our team!" she exclaimed as she skipped away with Jaune following behind her. As they made their way through the halls, a thought occurred to Penny that she voiced to Jaune.

"Friend Jaune, do you think our new teammates will also be our friends?" she asked with an innocent tone, to which Jaune thought for a moment on before answering.

"I hope so Penny. It's a lot easier to work with people you enjoy being around," He paused seeing the girl's attention focused solely on him, before continuing. "But I don't think you have anything to worry about, you should be fine Penny." He informed the girl with a satisfied nod but was surprised when her face shifted from one of innocent curiosity to worry.

"What about you Partner?" She asked as she observed him closely, waiting to hear his answer. Jaune didn't think the girl would read between the lines of his remark, and realized that while the girl may be innocent, more so than any he's met before, she was not oblivious.

"I'm not sure to be honest Penny…" He replied with uncertainty laced in his voice. The green-eyed girl took a step closer placing a hand on the taller boy's shoulder, before trying her best to reassure him.

"Don't you worry Friend Jaune, I think you are most pleasant company, and our new friends most likely will too!" she paused, adopting a somber smile, and spoke again. "And on the chance they don't, I'll still be your friend! No matter what." She spoke with finality.

Jaune just gave her a small smile, before noticing how much attention the girl was giving him. Embarrassed by their proximity, he cleared his throat and tried to switch gears back to their original task.

"H-Hey, so we-uh, really shouldn't keep our new friends waiting any longer right?" At this the shorter girl's eyes widened, and she took a step back, covering her mouth with her hand showing her shocked expression at the thought of keeping new potential friends waiting.

"Oh my! You're right Partner, lets get moving!" And with that, she took off running with Jaune following behind her.

* * *

After having made their way to their designated room, they both stood outside the door. Penny was still wearing her large smile, looking no worse for wear, and Jaune was panting from the full-on sprint he had to do in order to keep up with the girl.

"Alright Friend Jaune, are you ready to go inside?" Penny inquired as she turned her cheerful gaze on her company. The boy in question held up a hand, signaling that he needed a moment. Upon catching his breath, he nodded his head at the girl, and she opened the door.

The sight of what greeted them as they opened the door was nowhere near as impressive as the sound of what transpired before them. As they stood in the doorway, they were greeted with the sounds of a trumpet and drums being played together well and decided to wait until the other members of their new team finished playing their instruments to introduce themselves.

Roughly four minutes later, the music began to fade until both the unidentified students grinned at each other. Jaune cleared his throat from the doorway, earning him the attention of who he assumed were the other members of his new team.

One of them was a dark skinned, dark haired boy in black, he wore rather semi-formal clothes in a rather informal manner, his lower outfit consisting of pinstripe slacks and white dress shoes, and his upper clothing being a white conductor's shirt worn under a gray vest with a electric blue tie that hung around under the collar of his shirt, but lie completely undone. On his leg, Jaune noticed what he assumed was a holster but lacking its weapon and next to him on the post of a neatly made bed lay a black hat and glasses that were the same shade.

The mostly orange haired girl was much more difficult to describe, her style more colorful than her companion. She wore a pink mini skirt with black shorts beneath and covered herself from the knees down with calf high socks and knee pads. Her attire above the waist consisted of a blue crop top above a black athletic bra, and on her arms, she wore guards. The most outstanding features of the girl were the collar with a bell she wore from her neck, her tattoos, highlights, and the pink tail that swished in the air behind her.

Penny was quick to start conversation with the two, seemingly appearing out of thin air in front of the faunus girl. "Sal-u-tations! Since this is Room 404, its safe to assume you are our new teammates, right?"

The pink haired cat girl recovered from her shock almost as quickly as the excitable ginger seemingly materialized in front of her and looked to her partner, matching Penny's energy.

"Flynt! Flynt, look! We finally have two more people for a full team!" The cat-tailed girl exclaimed to her calmer partner, who just chuckled before responding to her.

"I see em' Neon, no need to spaz." He replied, eyes and tone full of mirth that came from years of knowing someone. The girl seemed to take a deep breath, and if Jaune heard right, counted under her breath for a few seconds before exhaling, now still exuberant, but more collected.

"So! I'm Neon Katt, and this is my partner, Flynt. Say hi Flynt!" the boy just rolled his eyes with a smile before standing up where he was seated and walking towards Jaune and Penny with a smirk, not exactly cocky, but…sure of who he was, almost as if he knew something someone present didn't.

"Pleasure. Name's Flynt. Flynt Coal." He stuck a handout to Jaune, who took it and continued the pleasantries.

"I'm Jaune, it's nice to meet you both." The blonde teen turned to his ginger-haired friend. "Hey Partner, why don't you introduce yourself." He said to girl, being rewarded with a smile.

"I'm Penny Polendina, and the pleasure is all mine!" At her greeting, the boy recoiled a bit, before asking a question to the girl.

"Polendina? Like Pietro Polendina?" he asked curious as to if the girl was related to the man.

Upon hearing the name, Penny's eyes widened a bit that someone knew of her father and brightened more, despite feeling impossible. "Oh! You know of my father? Sen-sational!" Jaune listened to this confused slightly, figuring out that his partner's father must be rather important.

"Pietro…Polendina? Isn't he, like, a genius scientist or something?" Neon asked, voicing the unasked question Jaune was also harboring. "And an inventor as well!" Penny tacked on with pride in her father.

"Yes, he is one of, if not the greatest minds here that are behind Atlas' military strength and quality of life." A voice cut out from the door behind the four teens who turned to look at their surprise visitor. They were all surprised to see general Ironwood standing in the doorway, holding a box with the symbol of Atlas on the side.

Ironwood looked directly to Jaune as he spoke this time. "Jaune, since you're officially a student here at Atlas now, inside of this package are a few things you'll need for your time here." Upon saying this the blonde walked forward to accept the package, but as he put his hands on it, Ironwood leaned forward slightly and spoke in a very hushed voice. "You should let your team know about your circumstances for coming here sooner than later young man. Secrets only increase their weight over time."

He took a step back from Jaune, seeing that the boy was very conflicted at the prospect of telling his new team about what had caused him to come here, but also not disagreeing, knowing that the general was right. The general cleared his throat, catching the attention of the young man before him and his team, and continued.

"From this day on, the four you: Jaune, Coal, Katt, and Penny, will form Team JCKP," He paused, smirking slightly as he did so, keeping the teens in suspense for a moment before he continued.

"Team Jackpot, Led by Jaune"

* * *

Meanwhile, many hundreds of miles away from Atlas, a bunny-eared second year student was returning from lunch with one Cardin Winchester. As the two of them walked down the halls, the boy earned looks of skepticism from students they passed due to his actions against faunus in the past. She just put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile that he was grateful for.

Suddenly her scroll began to vibrate, showing an unfamiliar contact I.d. She looked at Cardin confused, and he just mirrored her. She decided to answer after debating until the fourth ring.

"Hello…?"

"Velvet!" She heard a familiar voice exclaim over the phone shocking her.

"Jaune?!" Upon saying his name aloud, many eyes turned to face the rabbit faunus, suddenly very interested in her conversation. After Jaune had left for Atlas, rumors as to why he left began to spread like wildfire around Beacon, and those who asked his old team or team RWBY knew of his falsified transcripts. Cardin seeing this motioned for her to follow him to the courtyard, away from prying ears.

"Where are you, how are you calling me?!"

"I memorized your info Velv. The day you gave it to me I didn't have my scroll, so I forced myself to remember it until I got back to my dorm." Velvet smiled warmly at this, knowing full well that was something the boy would do. "Also, I'm in Atlas. I got accepted as a student and I just got my scroll. Oh! And I met my new team," as the boy said this, Velvet put Jaune on speaker so that Cardin could hear him as well. They heard a loud crash in the background followed by shouting and laughing before Jaune spoke again.

"I think I'm gonna like working with them." The tone he spoke in told both the Beacon students that he was happy, and that he was going to be fine at his new school.

"So, what're you doing J.B.?" Cardin spoke into the phone.

"Cardin? That y-wait, J.B.?" Jaune's confused reply came back.

"Jauney-Boy."

"Ah, I get it. Anyways, I'm about to unpack, talk with my team about everything, and then look into getting a new weapon and clothes." Upon voicing his plans, the two students looked at each other and grinned, realizing their friend was better than alright, he was great. If things kept progressing as they were, he'd no doubt be on the right track to enact his plan come the Vytal Festival.

"Jaune. After this call, I'm giving you Coco's contact info. Call her when you go to get clothes." The rabbit faunus spoke with a knowing tone to the boy.

Suddenly, the grin left the brown-haired girl's face as she hesitantly asked a question after what she heard. "Wait, Jaune…what do you mean you're going to talk with your team about everything?" Cardin's face changed to one of alarm as he looked down at Velvet then back down to the phone.

Jaune paused, the tension born from his moment of thought growing before he answered his friends.

"…Yea. Yea, I'm gonna tell them." The blonde teen said with uncertainty.

"Are you sure that's a good idea J.B.?" Cardin asked slowly.

"No." The blonde answered. "But it's a better idea than letting them find out in the future from someone else." He said in finality.

"Alright Jaune, you have our support, all of us. I hope it goes well." The camera carrying girl responded back. After a few more minutes of talking, Jaune felt he had stalled long enough, and ended the call to tell his team of his not-so-secret secret, but not before getting the contact info for Cardin and the rest of team CFVY and wishing his friends well, they in return wishing him good luck.

Jaune turned to his new team and coughed loud and awkwardly, gathering their attention.

"Listen, team…there's something I think you should know."

And the boy, despite how scared he was, swallowed and began telling his story.

* * *

**(A/N)**

**Hello again everyone.**

**I'm writing this as I'm finishing the chapter, which for some of you reading will be moments before this was uploaded. So, I think I've set the groundwork for the story decently, despite me letting the story write itself, but as much as I like to cover every detail, it really slows down the pacing of the story.**

**However, things pick up next chapter, as we'll see Jaune finally get his weapon, and a new outfit, which I imagine more than a few of you are curious about. His semblance won't be revealed just yet, sorry, but I'm saving that for a scene I'm still imagining playing out in my head.**

**This chapter was smaller than I anticipated, but I think that was a good capping point for the next one.**

**Another thing, if I manage to finish other stories' other first chapters, should I put them out? Let me know.**

**And finally, I updated last chapter after I did some proof reading. Fixed a few minor errors, but the big detail was that I added an Author's note to the end of that chapter as well.**

**Till Next Time,**

** BlackJackHero**


	3. Chapter 3-A Weapon to Protect

**(Chapter 3)**

As he collected the attention of his new team, the boy swallowed hard, he knew what he was about to do was risky, but he wasn't going to hide anything like this from his team, his…friends. The other occupants of the room just looked to him, reactions ranging. Flynt just nodded and sat back down on the ottoman next to his bed and put down his trumpet, Neon jumped back on to her bed and looked at him waiting for him to talk, and Penny smiled at him.

He shrunk from the gaze of his teammates and almost seemed to retreat into himself as he tried to decide where to begin his tale, before a gentle hand rested on his shoulder. He looked up to see his partner giving him a reassuring smile, to which he returned with one of bewilderment a tiny smile was sent back to her in thanks. He took a deep breath and began.

"So, I'm not exactly…qualified to be here. At this academy or any of them really." As he said this, the blonde teen knew there was now no return. The curious look that had spread over Neon's face was obvious, and Flynt seemed to become more attentive as he said this. Penny just continued to look at him with the same look of exuberance as she had since they met. At the pause that filled the room, Flynt decided to speak.

"What are you talking about? You got accepted into Atlas, didn't you?"

Jaune winced at the dark-skinned boy's question before answering reluctantly.

"Yea, but, I uh, probably wouldn't have been accepted here if I had applied normally…" as he said this, the faunus of his team added her two cents to the conversation.

"OH! That's right. There were rumors going around the campus about how a new mysterious transfer student, but no one knew where he came from. That was you?" The blonde just looked confused at the revelation before he replied.

"There were rumors about me? I wonder who started them…" The blonde shook his head, realizing he could investigate that later as he was getting off track. He steeled his resolve and got to the heart of what he wanted to share with his team.

"Anyways, I transferred here from Beacon Academy. I…I didn't get trained to be a huntsman before I went there. My family refused to train me or let me go to a huntsman preparatory school." He looked around the room to see the reactions of his team. Penny now tilted her head slightly to the side, an innocent look of curiosity on her face, Neon looked completely lost as to why Jaune seemed so worried when he wanted to tell them all this, and Flynt remained silent, but had an inkling of where the story was going, and so he decided to ask.

"Jaune, if all that's true, how did you get into Beacon then." The trumpeter asked. The teen in question just looked up to the ceiling before speaking.

"I cheated. I knew they wouldn't bat an eyelash at my application if I tried to apply without any prior training, so I used most of the money I had to get ahold of some forged transcripts. They were holding up too, until I couldn't keep my mouth shut."

The other members of the newly formed team JCKP all stayed silent, signaling for Jaune to continue his story.

"There was this guy who bullied me, and I was too weak and afraid to stand up to him besides once where I helped out a faunus he was preying on. After I helped her, I made his shit list and was always on his radar, if he saw me with no teachers around, he made sure to make my day hell." He recalled the events between him and his now ginger haired friend as he paused briefly before continuing.

"One night, after a pretty bad day of getting pushed around by him, my _partner_ took me aside to the rooftop to talk." Everyone present was able to hear the hurt in his tone as he spoke.

"She offered to help me, to protect me, but not even a few minutes later after I told her my secret, she turned on me. She forced me to tell my team, and then they turned on me too. After two weeks, she told the team we always spent time with, and then they turned on me too. The very next day after they told them, I was called to the headmaster's office." The other occupants of the room listened as he told his tale, thinking and waiting to hear everything before they made their judgement.

"The deputy headmistress, Ms. Goodwitch, was the one they told, and she wasn't too happy about it. So, she told headmaster Ozpin, and that was that, I knew I was going to leave Beacon. When it was just me and him, he gave me a choice: give up on my dreams of being a huntsman or come to Atlas to get some real training, no false transcripts and no false entry, and he even let me withdraw from Beacon instead of kicking me out so that it wouldn't show on my record."

Jaune now held a look of determination and decided to finish taking up all the attention of his team.

"I told a team of second years what happened, and they didn't care. They told me that I had their full support. And funny thing, that bully? Me and him are cool, he apologized for everything, and is trying to make a change to how he is." He smiled as he told them that, and it stayed as he continued. "Professor Ozpin and General Ironwood are giving me this chance, and I am not going to let this one slip away." He spoke with finality.

After he ended his story he looked around the room and readied himself to be shunned by the other members of team JCKP, but as he heard nothing for a few moments, he almost began to ask if everything was okay, before Penny stood up and moved to stand in front of the blonde teen. He looked down at her before she suddenly wrapped her arms around his torso gently, to not repeat in almost injuring her partner.

He was stunned to silent and just stood in his spot for a small while, no one saying anything before he spoke to his partner in a quiet tone. "You…aren't upset." It was more an observation than a question. She just looked up to him from where she was hugging him and replied.

"No, I'm not Partn-Jaune. You're my friend, I don't care about what you did. You're here now and you passed initiation. You earned the right to be here just as much as anyone else here." At this Jaune could nothing but put his arms around the girl dumbly and return her hug, thankful to her.

An awkward cough from Neon helped remind Jaune of the other occupants in the room as he quickly jumped back from the green-eyed girl that was hugging him moments ago, shying away from the mischievous grin that the cat faunus wore as she began to speak.

"You two are pretty close~ did something happen before you came here? I wonder…" She trailed off, enjoying both the blushing yet mortified look Jaune had and the innocent confused face that Penny wore. She laughed at the pair, wiping away fake tears with mirth from her eyes, before she spoke again.

"But, in all seriousness, everyone does something they know is bad at least once. And I can't trust anyone who says they haven't. So, Jaune, before all this, did you ever do anything bad?"

The blonde teen thought for a moment at her question, before he shook his head in a no, not able to remember doing anything especially bad. The orange haired faunus just cracked a smile before happily giving her verdict.

"Then I guess it's a good thing you finally did something bad huh? Because that means I can trust you and call you a friend." She passed a glance over to her dark-skinned partner, who had a look of thought from the beginning of the story to the end. Flynt adjusted how he was sitting on the bed before looking at his leader and giving a small smirk.

"If Neon says it's cool, then I'm with it, she's always been a good judge of character. Way I see it, what you did was wrong. It put your team and friends in danger." As he said this Jaune began to have a bit of worry before the trumpeter dashed his fears away.

"But, being a huntsman is already dangerous, and having another person out there to share the stage in front of things trying to kill you never hurts." As he said this, he stood up and made his way across the room until he was a few feet away from Jaune and put his hand out for a shake. "As long as you never make a plan that puts me, my partner, or your partner in unnecessary danger, we're Jake."

Jaune started to tear up a bit accepting the handshake, having risked everything by telling his new team about his secret, and this time was rewarded with friends that were happy to accept him. Suddenly the blonde teen made a look of confusion and voiced a question that now was on his mind.

"…What do you mean, 'We're Jake?'" Flynt just laughed at the boy, followed by Neon who understood Flynt's lingo, and a look of fellow befuddlement from Penny.

* * *

Back at Beacon, Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora were all making their way to the headmaster's office to meet the Pyrrha's new partner. As they walked through the halls, they all wondered what kind of person their fourth member would be.

"So Renny, what do you think our new teammate is gonna be like?" The bubbly and ever energetic voice of Nora asked to her lifelong friend. The teen kept pace as he thought of what kind of personality their new teammate would have.

"Hmm…Well, I wouldn't mind having another guy on the team. Or at the very least, someone laid back." Ren spoke to the pink bomber, before looking to Pyrrha.

"And what about you Pyrrha? What do you suppose your new partner will be like?" The scarlet spartan smiled warmly in thought.

"Well, I hope they're strong, kind, and someone who wants to protect and save lives." She spoke with a sure tone, looking back to the sole boy among her close friends. Nora decided it was her turn to insert her own opinions of what she wanted from their new teammate.

"I hope they like pancakes and sloths, but they have to be really strong, and nice!" Ren and Pyrrha both smiled in response to their excitable friend. It wasn't too long before the three Beacon students found themselves standing in front of the door to Ozpin's office. Pyrrha reached to open the door but stopped once she heard an argument coming from inside and beckoned her team to join her in listening through the door.

"I don't trust you! I trusted you once, and I lost everything because of it!" A woman's voice rang out.

"Then _why_ are you here?" Professor Ozpin replied, sounding exasperated beyond compare.

"Because…I have no choice. I can either work with you, and coexist, or with her, and die. At least this way…my tribe has a fighting chance." The female spoke with a somber, angry tone.

"What about your family?" Ozpin replied, a tone between curious and disappointed.

"My tribe IS my family now."

"Honestly Raven, I don't know why you make things so difficult. You know that they would accept you back, you might have to prove that you're going to be here, but they do miss you. You know that, right?" Ozpin tried to persuade her.

There was a pause, unlike the last. There was no feeling of overwhelming tension, palpable even beyond the door. The woman was probably mulling over the option, before she spoke again.

"If this plan of yours is to work, I need to be away from here as much as possible. Maybe one day I can have the luxury to see them again and apologize, but that won't be today." The headmaster remained silent once she finished talking. And so she continued.

"Take care of them for me Ozpin. I may not trust you, but I do know you have the strength to keep them alive." The sound of a blade being drawn could be heard, before a strange sound came after she finished speaking, almost otherworldly in nature.

"You have my word, as little to you as that may mean, that I will keep them safe from all of this." Ozpin spoke out to the female one last time. Raven began to walk towards the sound, and before the sound disappeared, and her voice with it, she spoke out, in a different tone to what they could only assume was a different occupant in the room.

"I expect for you to stay alive. I trained you myself, and if I was able to make it through this academy, then you had better do the same." And with that, the sound stopped, and a third voice spoke out softly.

"Yes ma'am."

The three teens from their hiding spot all quickly felt that they had just intruded on something that was likely extremely classified or personal, and so they collected themselves and put on faces of blissful ignorance. After waiting a few minutes, Pyrrha pushed open the door to Ozpin's office and was greeted by the sight of the headmaster drinking from his ever-present coffee mug, and a girl around their age.

She was rather plain looking, having extremely short brown hair. She wore pants that were maroon at the thigh, and brown from the knees down, accompanied by brown boots. Around her chest she wore a brown vest with the sleeves torn away and a popped collar, brown gloves, and a choker wrapped snuggly around her neck. The most noticeable feature of the girl were her eyes and her tattoo. Her eyes were a piercing blue akin to ice, and on her left arm a tattoo of a raven above a flower was depicted on her tan skin.

The unnamed girl turned to observe the new occupants of the room, before she scoffed to herself and rolled her eyes at the members of NPR. This earned a huff from Nora, who seemed to be about to voice her thoughts to the tan girl but was stopped by a hand from Ren. Pyrrha saw the girl's reaction but brushed it off as she had once been like that, before she had learned humility.

The girl looked back to the headmaster and spoke. "Professor, if that's everything, can I go now." She looked to the professor with boredom. The white-haired man in question took another sip from his mug before he massaged his temples tiredly and spoke to the girl.

"Now now young lady, don't be so hasty. You may not know how we do things here at Beacon, but since you'll be attending starting today, you will have to learn. Here, we don't train any students by themselves, rather, we train them in teams. And luckily for you, yours just arrived." The girl adopted a look between horror and regret, but before she could begin to argue, the headmaster spoke again.

"Ms. Nikos, would you and your team please step forward and introduce yourselves to your new partner." Upon hearing the headmaster's request, the spartan and her team walked forward until they were only a few feet from the roguish girl and began introductions.

"Hiya! I'm Nora, I like pancakes, sloths, Renny, my hammer! Also, I…" After the initial introduction of Nora, the tan skinned girl began to tune her out and looked to the sole male of the team, who sensed that it was his turn to introduce himself.

"Hello, I'm Lie Ren, but everyone just calls me Ren." The girl gave a begrudged nod to the boy, thankful for his to the point nature. Pyrrha seeing that she was the only one left to introduce themselves began speaking.

"And I'm Pyrrha Nikos, your new partner. It's a pleasure to meet you." She smiled to the girl and stuck her hand out. The unnamed girl looked to and from the hand outstretched towards her and the smile the girl wore, before she smirked devilishly.

To Ren, what he saw the girl doing was both unsanitary and disgusting, and he watched as she spat into her palm, and proceeded to shake his scarlet haired teammate's hand, who shuddered in response to the firm and saliva coated handshake she was met with.

"Vernal. Vernal Branwen of the Branwen Tribe." As she said this, the three teens nodded to her and Ozpin cleared his throat, collecting the attention of the other occupants of his office and spoke once more.

"From this day on, the four of you will form team Providence, PRVN, led by Ms. Nikos." The headmaster stood up and pulled out an item from his pocket before tossing it to Vernal, who caught it to reveal that it was a scroll.

"Ms. Nikos and the rest of your team will help you acclimate to Beacon, and if you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask them or a teacher. Now, off you go, all of you." The members of team PRVN made for the door, and as they exited, Ozpin called out one last thing for them.

"Also, take Vernal to get a set of uniforms for her." As the door closed behind them, team PRVN walked in silence on the way to the dorms, before Vernal asked a question.

"What's a uniform?"

* * *

(**One week later)**

Jaune was facing a dilemma. He had completed everything for his enrollment except for two crucial parts. He still hadn't gotten a new set of combat clothes, and he still hadn't acquired a weapon for himself. Coco, the coffee colored fashionista of Beacon, assured the blonde that she would help him pick out an outfit that would help him turn heads like her and her team. All that left him to do was pick out a weapon.

The blue-eyed blonde was currently in the armory labs of the academy with his partner, trying to find himself a suitable weapon or weapons so that he could participate in combat class. Sadly, he hadn't found any luck so far.

"Dammit!" The teen's frustration slipped from him; he took a deep breath before putting down the sword/javelin/sniper rifle mecha-shift weapon he had been testing out. The balance felt off, the sword form was too heavy, the javelin form was too long, and the only semi-decent part of the weapon was the sniper rifle.

'I wonder if I'll find a weapon suitable for me, since I don't really have training.' As he put it back to its original spot, Penny seemed to be able to read his mind, and tried to reassure him.

"Don't you worry Partner; we'll find you a weapon. And if we can't find one, we'll make one!" The ever-bubbly voice of his partner exclaimed, doing little to ease his worries, but succeeded in making the blonde smile.

"…You're right Penny, thanks." Jaune replied to the girl, truly grateful for her pure heart. The ginger-haired girl smiled and led him away to another part of the workshop to search for another potential weapon. After another thirty minutes of searching the duo decided to take a break, sitting together on one of the unused workbenches.

Jaune let Penny talk about whatever topic seemed that seemed to capture her as he stared to the ceiling in thought. After five minutes, he felt a hand gently lay itself on his shoulder and shake him a bit, and he looked back from the ceiling to the left where his partner watched him with concern. He tried to give her a reassuring smile, but her face remained worried as she asked him a question.

"Jaune, are you okay?" His partner asked, her attention solely on him. The boy just let out a sigh, dropping his façade before he answered her.

"I don't know Penny. It's kinda depressing. I just want to be able to train myself so that I can help fight with you guys, but I can't even find a weapon to do it." The boy felt his hand get gripped firmly, but not painfully, by his partner who now had a stern look on her face.

"No more feeling sad Partner, there are still weapons in here for you to test out. Me, you, Flynt, and Neon are all going to get stronger together and show the world who team JCKP is." Penny spoke with a tone that left no room for disagreement, and the boy felt his doubts slowly wash away before shooting the girl an elated grin to which she returned.

Jaune turned from her and scanned the room for a few minutes, letting his sight fall upon the weapons he still hadn't tested yet. Among the many he saw, little did much to hold his interest past an initial glance.

"Any of them catch your eye partner?" Penny's voice called out among the silence, he shook his head no, and she just pumped an arm in the air and made a declaration.

"Then it looks like we're going to design you a unique weapon!" The girl wore an excited smirk as she exclaimed, and her attitude was infectious as Jaune merely nodded his head to her with a smile.

"Oh ho? Did I hear that someone is designing a new weapon?" A third voice called out from behind them, surprising both teens. Jaune and Penny turned around to view who was behind them, and Penny's eyes widened in shock before she ran to the man.

He was a dark-skinned man with gray hair and wore a green hat. The rest of the older man's outfit was rather plain, but what stood out was the contraption that the man sat in. It was a seat with four legs that carried the man. Jaune made an educated guess that the man was most likely a paraplegic since the man could still move his upper body.

"Father!" Penny called out, further adding to her blonde partner's surprise. Jaune watched as his partner gave the man a hug and decided to wait for her to introduce him.

"Hello Darling, are you having a good day?"

"Yes sir! And I hope that you are having a most wonderful day to!"

"I most certainly am, my dear." The man turned to the blonde teen, and cleaned his glasses before studying him in depth, and his face shifted to one of recognition.

"And I'm guessing you must be Jaune, Penny's partner." The man wasn't asking a question, he knew exactly who he was. Jaune nodded his hand and walked forward before offering the older man a handshake.

"Yes sir, Jaune, no last name. Pleasure to meet you." Jaune gave the older man a sincere greeting, hoping to make a better first impression to those he didn't know at Atlas in comparison to the impressions he made at Beacon. The older man gave Jaune a somber smile before accepting the handshake.

"Pietro. Pietro Polendina. Scientist and engineer of Atlas but most importantly, Penny's father." The blonde teen was confused by the sympathy in the man's tone. Before he could inquire if he was alright, the man spoke again.

"Young man, Ironwood spoke to me already about your situation. I know it won't make you feel any better, but I'm sorry about your family." Jaune's just shook his head before he picked up his end of the conversation.

"It's not your fault sir. What's done is done. I'm not happy about it, but I'm not gonna waste energy or time thinking too much on it or hating them. That's all effort that I can use to get stronger and prove them wrong." The older man let out a mirth filled belly laugh before wiping away a tear from his eye and speaking to the teen again.

"Jaune, I think you and I are going to get along famously." From the side, Penny was practically gleaming with happiness at the positivity of her best friend and father's interaction and decided to hop back into the conversation.

"Father, Jaune wishes to arm himself with a weapon, but none of the weapons here suit his tastes. Therefore, we decided to build one!" The ginger-haired girl informed her father of her partner's plight and the older man simply grinned before patting Penny on the head and turning his robotic seat to face the blonde teen.

"I do remember overhearing something about making a weapon when I came over to say hello. So, what do you have in mind?" The older gentleman pulled out some sort of device and began tapping away as he started to think of ideas for his daughter's partner.

"Well…I don't really know? I mean, I've never really had any training, so I guess I'm open to suggestions." Jaune responded to his partner's father. The older man just smiled shortly before putting down the device and imparting knowledge onto the blonde.

"Young man, I know you weren't given any training prior to becoming a student here. But here at Atlas, you will get all the training you need in order to become a full-fledged huntsman. And on the off chance that whatever weapon we design is something so unique that there isn't anyone you can watch to learn from, then you'll just have to make your own combat style."

As the old man finished speaking, Jaune had looked up to the ceiling in thought, imagining a weapon that would match him. Before he could become enraptured in his thoughts, a heavy hand fell upon his shoulder gently and he looked back to the scientist as he spoke to him.

"So, let me rephrase; what kind of weapon do you want? What do you want your weapon to be able to do?" Pietro retracted his hand from Jaune's shoulder and reactivated the small device, powering up a screen from which the genius inventor waited to sketch upon. The blonde teen thought for a moment, before beginning to answer.

"…I want something that will let me protect people. Others too, not just myself. Something that will let me keep my team safe." As he began speaking, Pietro began to write down his comments and brainstorm ideas, still listening fully to Jaune as he did, but also noticing his daughter smile warmly at her leader's words.

"I also want the ability to go on the offensive. I don't want to hide behind my shield and watch my team do all the fighting, I want to be able to fight side by side with them and take out enemies on my own." Upon hearing this, Pietro began drawing possibilities for the teen's weapon, and Penny skipped over next to her father and watched as he listed possible ideas and designs.

For a few minutes, the only sound being made was the tapping of the inventor's finger dancing over the touch screen device while Jaune stood in thought. Both father and daughter's attention bounced back to the boy as he began to speak again.

"I also have a really big weakness, which is that I have no ranged abilities. I want to change that."

"Have you ever used a ranged weapon before?" Pietro asked him, but not looking up from the device, paused in his designing. The boy shook his head no, and the scientist let out a few sounds of thought, deleting some concepts and debating on newer ones as he drew much slower now.

"And the only other thing I can think of is a form to give it some reach, for enemies where being too close is a _really _bad idea." As he finished listing off what he thought would be the ideal weapon, he looked over to his partner and saw her amazed as she watched her father work. Jaune just chuckled at the girl, and sat on the table next to him, waiting for Pietro to finish whatever he was doing.

After roughly thirty minutes of waiting, Pietro smiled and beckoned the boy to follow him. As he stood there confused, Penny skipped over and pulled him behind her excitedly. Once they arrived at an odd room filled with projectors and what looked like a scanner for the floor, Pietro tapped a few buttons on his device, and swiped his work off the screen, sending it to float in the middle of the room where the three were gathered.

"So Partner, see anything you like?" The ginger haired girl asked to her team leader. The blonde in question stepped forward and reached out to try and read some of the notes written down by Pietro and yelped in surprise when the hologram enlarged where touched for better viewing. Blushing fiercely as his partner and her father laughed at his shock, he began to read through the notes and examine some of the sketches drawn by the inventor.

"Hmmm…" The boy put a finger to his chin in thought as he read the creator notes of each design, weighing over the potential pros and cons of each design he came across.

"See, these are all catching my eye, now I just wish I had some way to…" Jaune trailed off, looking down to his hands before a comment made his eyes widen.

"Feel each one out?" The blonde's snapped over to Pietro, staring at him as if he'd said something insane.

"Yeah, actually. But that's impossible…isn't it?" The boy watched as a large smile found its way to the dark-skinned man's face before he tapped a few buttons on the screen, and a holo-projection replica of the weapon Jaune was looking at appeared in front of the boy. The boy reached out and grabbed the weapon before noticing that it held no weight and looked back to the older man.

"Would it be possible to simulate the weight of different metals to see what I like?" At the blonde's question, the older man nodded.

"Why yes, yes it would. What metal did you have in mind?" The blonde grinned before he answered.

"A non-ferrous, high-grade titanium alloy. And if that's not possible, something non-ferrous that's durable." As the words left his mouth, Pietro couldn't help but feel impressed by the teen, who clearly had been researching options. He was about to question why he asked for that specific metal before a realization struck and he grinned, and made the hologram simulate the weight of his chosen material.

Penny watched as her teammate looked around at all the notes and held each of the potential weapon designs before she turned to her father.

"Friend Jaune seems rather adamant about having a weapon made from non-magnetic metal. Is there any reason as to why?" The ginger's creator smiled to her before enlightening her.

"Darling. Do you know who the members of his former team were?"

"No sir." She looked to him curiously, awaiting a revelation.

"If it's for the reason I suspect, then that boy you have for a partner is probably best at holding grudges that I've ever seen. He's extremely polite and well mannered, but he does have a petty side to him evidently." The older man laughed to himself before he reminisced aloud. "Oh, the joys of being young."

Penny looked as if she was going to ask a question, but got the feeling that perhaps her father wanted her to ask her partner herself, so she went back to watching the blonde who was now testing out another weapon hybrid.

'This isn't the one eith-wait.' Jaune turned from the weapon he was holding, letting it fall apart into countless particles of light as he walked toward a set of floating notes and design ideas. As he read through the notes, his face adopted a ghost of a smile, becoming wider with each page he read through.

After five minutes of excitedly looking through the sketches, he signaled for the older man to form a holo-projection of the weapon he was reading about. The older man nodded, and a heavy hard-light weapon lay suspended in front of the blonde. As he reached out and gripped the shield, he let out a breathless gasp of excitement. He took a practice stance and tried changing stances multiple times to test the shield, before he was satisfied. He pressed a button on the arm support of the shield and gears could be heard as the weapon started to morph.

A few seconds of later, his shield had shifted into a bow. Since he had no arrows, all he could do was hold the weapon with his left arm and pull back on the hard-light string with his right hand, imagining himself nocking an arrow. As he held the holo-form of the weapon, he suddenly had a question to which he asked Pietro.

"Sir, will this fire normal arrows or?" The scientist pointed to something on one of the design notes, and made it appear in holo-form in front of him before explaining.

"That's where this little device comes into play. It's designed to resemble a quiver, but in truth, it's actually a portable mini 3-d printer. Simply put your hand in front of it, and an arrow will be made and ready to fire. There will be some…other features that it can use in the future, but I'll keep those restricted for now so that you learn how to use the weapon as it is, you're going to be quite busy learning how to use multiple different weapon forms in combat." The blonde understood what the older man said was wise, and found himself agreeing with the inventor's decision.

He admired the form for a few moments more, before he shifted the position of his fingers on the handle of the bow, and upon hearing a hiss, placed his other hand on the handle above his left and pulled them in opposite directions, causing the bow to split into twin swords, the sword held in his left hand was in a reverse grip, and the sword help in his right was held normally.

He took a few practice swings, enamored by the weight and sleekness of design both blades had before he placed them back together hearing a hiss, signifying the completion of its reattachment. He twisted the handle of the bow in different directions, causing the weapon to make a completely new whirring sound.

After another moment of weapon transformation, in his hands lay a lance. Neither too long nor to short, standing just taller than him after having unlocked many inner mechanisms, and it seemed to the boy as if the front of the lance did something else as well.

He looked to the older man in confusion, who in turn chuckled before answering the unasked question.

"The lance's…canopy I guess we should call it, stretches upward for one last transformation. Try and push the part your holding with your right hand upwards and grip the lower end with your left." Jaune nodded and proceeded to do as he was instructed, causing the lance's canopy to unfurl upward, causing his weapon to resemble…an umbrella?

Jaune looked to ask the genius man why his weapon could shift into this form but was met with a look of mirth as the older man spoke.

"Young man, you haven't found your semblance, yet right?" It wasn't a jab at him, it was merely an observation meant to make the boy think. Jaune just winced before sighing and nodding his head, confirming the words of the dark-skinned man, who continued.

"So, tell me. What exactly is your landing strategy?" As those words left Pietro's mouth, Jaune felt as if the weight of the world came falling upon him in embarrassment. He was so caught up in everything else going on, he entirely forgot that he still didn't have a landing strategy. The scientist had thought ahead so far as to make him a weapon concept that would not only keep him safe but was viable to most situations. He just rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, refusing to meet the amused eyes of Pietro.

"So, Partner, is this the weapon for you?" The cheery voice of his partner always made the blonde feel better, so he turned to her and gave her his own bright smile, nodding to her. Suddenly, his thoughts came to a halt as he realized something and voiced it to the older gentleman.

"I just noticed something. All these weapon concepts were drastically different, but they all had one thing in common; a shield form." The older man took of his glasses to clean them before placing them back on and addressing the boy.

"I reckon that's why all of these weapons caught your eye in comparison to the others. You desire to protect others, and what better to do so than a shield. Plus, if i recall you said, and i quote, "I don't want to hide behind my shield and watch my team do all the fighting." So, at the very least, you did tell me that you wanted a shield." Jane smiled in gratitude to the wise man, and thanked him.

"After seeing this, I don't think I'll ever wanna use anything else." At his compliment, the older man nodded, accepting the praise with grace, and the ginger-haired girl jumped in the air out of excitement.

"Sensational! Father, how long will it take to fabricate Jaune's new weapon?" The older man began typing somethings on his device before running calculations in his head.

"I would say…maybe three days. It all depends on how much work gets done and how many problems we come across."

"Is there any way I can help?"

"What do you mean my boy?"

"I really appreciate this, you and Penny helping me design a weapon, I wouldn't feel right if I didn't help you build it at least." The blonde said, earning a bit more respect than he already had from the older man.

Pietro just chuckled to himself, before waving his hand in a dismissive manner.

"Don't you worry young man; I can tell you're quite earnest. But, thankfully the machines here in the lab cut down on actual labor, and what labor is left can be handled by Penny." The dark-skinned scientist looked at Jaune, who hadn't wavered in his request, and gave an exasperated smile.

"But…if you're going to insist, then you can help out over the next few days to make it go faster. I'll write a note to James so that you can be excused from your classes, and by the end of the next few days, you'll be carrying your new weapon."

At this, the blonde smiled and nodded his head furiously, and the three set themselves into planning out the building process, all of them wearing smiles.

* * *

**(A/N)**

**So we finally get to see Jaune's weapon. Next chapter, we'll get to see him use it and build his training schedule. We may also meet the companion team for JCKP. The dynamic will be similar to RWBY/JNPR's dynamic, but will also feel unique. Soon, we may even get to see Jaune discover his semblance. Who knows?**

**Hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter and I can't wait to share more with you all.**

**BlackJackHero**


	4. Chapter 4-Coming Together

**Author's note at the ending of the chapter.**

_'When you see me write with italics and between the thought marks, it means that Fox is speaking with his semblance.'_

**(Chapter Four)**

Jaune was getting anxious.

The past two days he spent helping Penny and Pietro to fabricate his new weapon, but today, he was informed by the two that he wouldn't be allowed to help in the final stages of creating the weapon. The blonde tried to persuade the father and daughter to include him in the last leg of work but they both remained adamant and forced him away, so he spent most of his day cooped up in his room messaging team CFVY and Cardin.

Jaune looked out the window from his bed and saw that the sun was setting and noticing that Flynt and Neon hadn't returned yet. He was about to message the other partner pair when suddenly the dorm room door swung open causing him to jump slightly from where he sat. He looked up and all the anticipation from today returned as intense as ever upon seeing his ginger-headed partner standing in the doorway wearing a bright smile.

"Greetings Partner, I hope you had a good day!" Jaune nodded to her before rushing to stand in front of her, as he did so he took in Penny's appearance. She was still wearing her normal attire, but she wore a welder's apron and goggles in addition to her outfit. She also had plenty of oil and soot marks littering her, the most noticeable, and admittedly cute, was an oil smudge that covered the tip of her nose.

As he took in her appearance, he stayed silent at her greeting, causing the shorter girl to lean in closer to the blonde and ask him a question causing his face to flush, tilting her head to the side ever so barely.

"Partner? Is everything all right?" As she asked this, Jaune realized that he had been staring at his partner for longer than was normal and coughed into his hand to regain composure whilst taking a moderate step back away from the girl.

"Y-Yea Penny, I'm okay." Once the words left his mouth, the girl looked at him skeptically, before smiling and nodding to him, causing him to let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding as she told him exactly what he wanted to hear.

"Sensational! Father sent me to inform you that your weapon is ready. Would you like to come and see?" The moment Jaune heard her comment he nodded his head furiously, causing the ginger to laugh melodically and take the blonde's hand before running out of the dorm and towards the lab at full speed, dragging an embarrassed, thrilled, and terrified teen behind her.

After a few minutes of traversing the campus, Penny was standing proudly in front of the door to the forge lab, while Jaune was trying not to lose his lunch at the previous high-speed travel he was subjected to. Upon recomposing himself, he smiled and gave a thumbs-up to his partner, who returned his gestures, and opened the door. He was led past the various rooms of the lab until his eyes fell upon Pietro sleeping soundly in his chair, slumped over one of the desks in the lab.

Penny made a gesture for him to remain in place as she silently skipped her way to her father's side and gently roused him from his sleep.

"Huh? Oh! Darling, you're back. And I see you brought Jaune with you." The older man stretched as much as he could from his seat before he sat up straight and rubbed away the sleep from his eyes.

"That is correct, friend Jaune was quite eager to come and see his new weapon." Pietro chuckled at her speech tick and gestured for the blonde to come closer as he began to let suspense build.

"Well young man, I promised you a huntsman quality weapon, and I do believe that this," He gestured to an item that lay upon the workbench in between them covered with a cloth for an unveiling, letting an intention silence fall upon the group before he spoke again. "is a right work of art if I do say so myself."

Jaune looked at the weapon that was disguised in front of him, and he looked toward Penny and Pietro.

"Thank you both for this, you don't have any idea how much this means to me." The older man just waved him off and gave him a happy response.

"Well I couldn't have my daughter's best friend and partner off saving the world without a weapon now, could I?" At this, the ever-exuberant girl shook her head no and was excited for her partner to see his personal weapon. The blonde in question looked towards the cloth and then back to the inventor. Upon seeing the older man raise a hand, signaling him to proceed, he gripped the cover and pulled it away in one fluid motion.

His jaw went slack and he found himself looking at a beauty of design. The shield was a heater shield like the one he previously wielded while he attended Beacon, save for the small extra curve at the center top of the shield and the slightly pointed center face of shield. It was all silver on the side that received punishment, but on the side that was held, there were touches of royal blue. The shape of the shield hadn't been decided on when they began working, but as he viewed his weapon, he couldn't help but think that Pietro made the perfect choice.

The blonde picked up the shield, admiring the weight and heft the weapon had before shifting it to its other forms as his partner and her father conversed in a hushed tone. After a few minutes of testing the weight and grip of the weapon in different forms, Jaune was wielding the lance and upon shifting it to its umbrella form, which was ever so barely taller than the blonde at his full height, he took Pietro's attention was from his conversation with Penny.

"Ah, the umbrella form. So, there are two key components for this form that I need to explain." Jaune nodded to the older man before holding the weapon horizontally so that the inventor could point out the features. The man adjusted Jaune's hold on the weapon, tilting the angle at which the umbrella was held so that the canopy was aimed more toward the ground, revealing gill like vents on the inside of the canopy.

"Do you see those vents on the inner part of the canopy?"

"Yes sir."

Before Pietro could go in depth explaining the function of the vents, Penny raised and waved her hand in the air excitedly, grabbing her father's attention.

"Oh! Father, may I explain this part to him? Please, may I?" She suddenly replaced her smile with an adorable pout that was perfected in the art of tugging heartstrings. Pietro let out a large belly laugh at the girl's antics while Jaune coughed and looked away to hide the slight pink dusting that his cheeks had. The dark-skinned scientist gave her a pat on the head before signaling for her to take over the explanation.

"So Partner, the purpose of the vents is for this!" She gestured to the neck of the umbrella connected to the canopy and twisted in a segment, causing an inner chamber to reveal a vial filled with a purple substance.

"Is that…" The blonde leader hesitantly began to say, afraid of the answer.

"Dust. Gravity dust specifically." The ginger replied, confirming his fears. Upon seeing the worried expression of his daughter's partner, Pietro decided to briefly chime in to ease the younger man of his fears.

"I wouldn't worry yourself too much over the dust. You won't have to learn or memorize any type of dust science or take any overzealous precautions with the weapon. The dust is actually rather supplementary to the weapon's design than something else you will have to learn use in battle." Penny nodded her head in affirmation of her father's words before explaining the purpose of the vents.

"By channeling aura into the weapon, and shifting this slider up with your thumb, the umbrella form will slow your decent using gravity dust, since without it you'd be trying to slow your decent using a metal rain protection device. Thanks to the dust, this puts, I believe the term was, 'wind under your sails.'" The blonde's partner explained with a slightly confused face at the term she tried to recall.

She let the look of confusion leave her as she continued her explanation. "And if you shift the slider to the left from its raised position, you'll accelerate towards wherever you have the pointed end facing, and if you slide it down from the left, you'll accelerate towards whatever direction the handle is pointing." The ginger concluded with a look of appraisal towards Jaune, trying to gauge his reaction to his new weapon.

As Penny finished her lecture of his new weapon, Jaune observed the weapon with interest and tried everything to return the weapon to its shield form, and after a few minutes of fiddling with the complicated weapon, succeeded in his challenge.

As he held it, Pietro pushed the weapon Jaune was holding gently against his chest, and gave the boy an approving smile, before imparting his last bit of advice to the young man.

"Now Jaune, while this weapon is something, I would consider one of my better works, there are two things about this weapon that will dictate how you preform with it." The teen in question nodded to the older gentleman, and Pietro continued.

"First, there are a _lot _of moving parts and pieces to this weapon, and they all have a place. Right now, they are all in their respective places, and no foreign materials or substances have made their way into the weapon." The older man looked to the weapon in the younger man's hands before continuing.

"First, as time goes on, this weapon will clash with the grimm and with other weapons, and it will fall to the ground only to be picked up and fought with again. While this weapon is something I'm proud to have created, if you don't perform regular maintenance on this weapon, it will give out on you eventually. Second, a little bit of wisdom from an old man." Pietro put a heavy but gentle hand on the boy's shoulder and locked eyes with him before speaking.

"Focus on what's standing in front of you and what you _can _do, rather than what's far ahead of you and what you can't do yet." Jaune nodded to the inventor, and with that, the older man made his way toward the door to catch up on rest in his quarters. And Jaune turned to face Penny, who was standing there awkwardly, but no less enthusiastic.

"So, friend Jaune…do you…like your weapon?" She asked tentatively. Jaune looked down to the mass of shift enabled metal and grinned broadly before scooping his partner up in a hug without thinking.

"I love it Penny, it's perfect." The blonde responded sincerely.

Moments after he scooped her up, he realized what he'd done and let her go, but Penny didn't seem angry, she just smiled earnestly back to him in full.

Jaune strapped the weapon to his back in its shield form and moved towards the entrance of the labs, before his sleeve was grabbed by the smaller ginger haired girl. He turned back to her, and saw the worry in her eyes, and he immediately became concerned. Before he could say anything, she spoke.

"I have a secret." She blurted out to her partner.

Jaune just looked at her confused and questioned. "A secret?"

His partner nodded her head as she stared down at her shoes and answered. "Yes, I have a secret. I asked father if I could tell you and he said it was my decision to make. And I really want to…but-" She took a deep breath and continued. "I can't. Not yet." She stared at the ground and her being burned with shame as they stood in silence.

Her fears of Jaune having a bad reaction to her statement were dashed away when the blonde just smiled and responded.

"Then tell me when you can, you don't have to rush it." She looked up to meet his eyes and nodded slightly, to which Jaune just smiled at her. Penny returned his smile and spoke with a weight lifted off her chest.

"You'll be the first person I tell."

* * *

**(One Month Later-Atlas Academy)**

Turns out, creating a combat style wasn't a walk in the park, especially when you had to create a style to fit four different types of weapons, five if you count the umbrella. He had to get used to dust, wielding two-handed weapons, increase his accuracy with his bow, and learn how to dual wield correctly. The only part of the weapon that he was able to use effectively was the shield.

Despite the challenges that lie ahead of him, Jaune wasn't discouraged. He had his team, the headmasters, and Pietro all believing in him to be better. The only problem so far was that progress was…slow. With his weapon forged, Jaune was cleared to participate in combat class alongside his peers. In individual ranking, the blonde sat in the lower half of combatants, due to both his lack of training and having to learn to fight with his equipment on the spot. In team ranking however, Jaune's team sat amongst the top two spots in class, competing for the number one rank against a team that was rather like team JCKP.

So far three matches of individual competition had been completed by the members of the blonde's team. First was Neon. She went up against Ivori, a tan skinned boy wearing a white and gold outfit that was rather revealing. Accenting his look was short white hair and a pair of gold tinted glasses that didn't fully block his eyes, revealing rather mischievous yet mellow light brown eyes. Ivori wielded a white and gold whip that doubled as a pendulum, and was well versed in combat with it, causing Neon to have a difficult time against him as he could keep her at a distance, but punish her if she didn't respect his weapon's versatility.

Neon put on an impressive display against the Ivori, but in the end, the flashy teen stole the win away from her by landing a heavy hit and dropping her aura to the red. Next was Flynt against Kobalt, a tall teen with cobalt blue hair and eyes. In comparison to his teammate Ivori, his outfit was more conservative, and he accessorized with pauldrons and asymmetrical gloves worn on either arm. His main weapon was the gauntlet he wore on his left arm that made his strikes much more impactful with the help of dust, and his secondary weapons were a pair of butterfly swords he kept in his back belt line.

The winner of a fight between Kobalt and Flynt always came down to whether the blue haired hot head could close the distance between him and trumpet wielding teen, and today, the win went to Flynt. The fight before the one going on currently was Penny against Ciel Soleil, a very to-the-point girl with dark skin and black hair. Her posture, attitude, and even her clothing seemed to radiate a proven confidence but never was she arrogant.

Often when the two would clash in combat exercises, rarely would a winner be decided. Typically, they would battle for so long that the instructor would call their match a draw early on so that other students would have a chance to battle. On occasion, Penny would land a decisive blow with her swords that would drop Ciel's aura into the red, or Ciel would maneuver Penny into a win by ring out with her twin revolvers.

After they returned to their seats, the current battle had begun. Jaune and his opponent faced each other in combat class the most often because of their similar skills. Their bouts were almost always a game of planning ahead, and rarely did one of them defeat the other consecutively. As the battle raged on, the blonde's opponent charged forward.

His opponent had a pale, blemish free complexion and piercing blue eyes. He was tall and had a skinny build, yet still shorter than Jaune by a few inches. His outfit was rather stylish with a professional feel. Covering his upper body was a plain white button-down shirt with the sleeves at a half arm length with a black tie, worn under a pale, dark blue vest sporting a black folded pocket square, and for his lower body, wore indigo pants and dress shoes.

The rest of his outfit was rather interesting, consisting of a gray trench coat that was fitted for the teen, and upon his left upper arm and shoulder sat a compact shield that the white-haired teen angled to protect himself when he lunged to attack. He donned an unusual type of half-cloak that circled him from the right side of his chest to the right side of his back, and concealed him to his lower right arm. Atop his head he wore a gray circular brimmed hat that let but a few white locks of hair show, but the left side of the brim was stitched to the crown of the hat with a 'W.S'.

His weapons were a pata, a sword connected to a gauntlet designed for dueling many years before either teen's time that required agility and finesse and hidden on the above the teen's right ribs was a modernized, and likely highly customizable, dueling pistol. Jaune's constant rival in combat exercises was the leader of team Witch Lock, a.k.a. WICK, and the brother of his former crush Weiss; Whitley Schnee.

Jaune believed he was ready to brace and counterattack, but as he took a step backward, he lost his footing, causing his stance to become faulty. As Whitley impacted his shield with his weapon, the blonde was sent skidding backwards, and he absentmindedly noticed he was at the edge of the ring.

As Jaune checked his aura levels, he saw that a good hit on his opponent would net him a victory, but his opponent had an impressive intellect, and seemed to be formulating a plan of his own. Without warning, his rival shot forth and broke the blonde from his calculating, forcing him to react with a raised shield and a swear.

Upon breaching the blonde's safe space, the white-haired teen smirked and changed the direction of his attack to instead swipe at his legs with his blade. Jaune jumped back before realizing that he played into his opponent's hands, and as he was falling back refused to lose. He quickly shifted his shield to its dual sword form and let out a swipe across his opponents' chest just as his backside hit the ground.

Jaune fell victim to Whitley's plan of forcing him to fall out of the ring, but in turn had found his aura sent into the red with a decisive retaliation from Jaune. The instructor called the battle a draw and both students nodded to her before shaking hands and returning to sit with their teams.

"So~ what's the score now?" Whispered the amused cat faunus of team JCKP. Jaune grunted whilst pulling out a pocket notebook and adding a tally to the book.

"Six wins, six losses, seven draws." The blonde replied as he scribbled away, writing down notes detailing his and Whitley's most recent bout. He let out a sigh as he put away the pocketbook and laid his head on the desk to rest as the rest of the class went by slowly.

Soon, combat class concluded, and it was time for lunch. The members of teams JCKP and WICK walked together to the cafeteria, the eight students conversing with each other in about various subjects and giving opinions of their fights. After standing in line for the lunch buffet, they two teams sat together at a circular table, all enjoying the delicious fresh food cooked by the chefs of the academy.

"That was a rather impressive move Jaune." The blonde turned to the side to meet his friend and fellow leader and nodded to him as the rest of the two teams talked amongst themselves.

"Thanks, and your strategy was nothing to sneeze at either Whitley. I knew in the back of my head that I was at the edge of the ring, but you didn't give me any time to think today, so I played right into your hands." The blonde boy accepted his rival's praise and returned the gesture as he ate.

Whitley adjusted his tie before returning to his meal. The two sat in silence before the youngest of the Schnee siblings spoke again.

"Pardon me Jaune, but may I ask a question?" His tone changed, it was filled with curiosity, and perhaps if the blonde was deducing correctly, uncertainty. Jaune made a motion with his hand, signaling for Whitley to go ahead.

"I know we both lack any long-term substantial training, so we are definitely on the right track but," the white-haired boy paused for a moment, poking at his food before resuming. "it doesn't feel as if we're really improving all that much. I know we won't grow exponentially overnight, but it feels abnormally slow."

Jaune chewed on a rather tender piece of meat for a moment, and swallowed while digesting what Whitley had put forth, and after a brief period of thought responded. "I understand how you feel, but I think we just need to be patient. I don't know everything about your circumstances, but I do know that if we want to be able to face our teammates in combat class or protect them in a real battle, we have to work harder than anyone else. And unfortunately, that's gonna take time."

Whitley sat in silence pondering what Jaune had said, before reluctantly nodding his head and returning to his meal. Jaune got lost in his thoughts thinking about his homework and upping his nightly workout. A soft hand fell on his shoulder and he looked to his left and saw Penny giving him a thumbs up. He smiled back to her before finishing his meal and excusing himself to return to team JCKP's dorm.

Once he closed the door behind him, he set out to finish his homework for Grimm Anatomy. As he looked through the book and filled out the answers to questions, he let his mind wander, causing the time to go by. Before he knew it, an hour had passed, and he'd completed the homework. As much as the blonde didn't like doing book work, he was remaking himself, which meant taking things a bit more serious, even classwork.

He went into the bathroom to change his clothes, just in case his team returned, and once he was completed, grabbed his workout bag before heading to the gym. Once he was in the courtyard and walking to the other end of the academy campus, he felt his scroll vibrate in his pocket and checked it. The time read 17:17, and the screen showed that Jaune had an unread message from his bully turned friend, Cardin.

As he crossed the campus, he decided to call the ginger instead of texting, not having heard the voices of him or any members of team CFVY since before he had designed his weapon. He waited through the rings and on the fourth, the scroll call was answered.

"Hey Cardin."

"J.B! Good to hear from you buddy. I was beginning to think you forgot about me." The blonde could hear the sincerity that the mace wielder was greeting him with which caused a happy grin to appear on his face.

"Nah man, you know I'd never dare do that. But hey, I saw that you sent me a text earlier, couldn't answer because I was still in class. What's up?" Cardin remembered that Jaune was now in a different time zone and rubbed the back of his head before responding.

"I was actually calling…" The Beacon student paused, something Jaune was acutely aware of. Jaune decided to interject himself after a full minute of silence.

"You okay Cardin?" The blonde could hear the uncharacteristic sign leaving the ginger's lips over the phone before his friend finally finished saying what he wanted.

"I was calling to see if you could give me any advice on how to beat your old friends in combat exercises." Instantly, the blonde realized why the boy was so hesitant to say why he called. He needed help, and whether it was because he felt embarrassed at having to ask Jaune or just needing to ask in general the blonde didn't have time to decide on, as Cardin continued to speak.

"I can't squeeze a win out of any of your old pals, and it's getting old. Quick. Both team RWBY and PRVN toss me and my team around like a salad," PRVN? Jaune deduced that that must have been the new name of his old team.

"they don't even look like their breaking a sweat when they go against me. Ren, Ruby, and Blake don't let me get any where close, Nora, Yang, and Weiss all just overpower me every time we have a match, Pyrrha looks bored in every match she has unless it's against her teammates or team RWBY, and don't even get me _started _on the new girl."

"Who is she? If she really is that bad, I might have to look into her." The blonde was nearing his destination, as he was able to see it distantly. The Atlas Academy training center, it was a large building, but rather ordinary as it blended in well with the rest of the ornate architecture around him.

"Vernal Branwen. I don't know anything about her, except that she is, well…"

"Well what Cardin?" The blonde could hear the boy's shoulders shrug as if he'd given up on trying to describe her politely.

"She's kind of a bitch. She doesn't get along with team RWBY at all, it doesn't even look like she mixes well with the rest of her team." The blonde just shook his head at the description of the girl before he responded.

"Hm, maybe she's like that for a reason. Have you tried exploiting their team's dynamic in team combat exercises?"

"Of course I did. While they don't look like friends or match very well, PRVN can cooperate pretty damn well in fights. And then they're right back to keeping their distance from each other. But there is something I noticed."

"That sounds interesting, what did you see?"

"It only gets to this point when they go against team RWBY, but if one of them needs to fall back, the new girl will straight up screw her team over if it means taking out one of the girls."

"What do you mean by that?" The blonde was genuinely curious about how one girl could offset his old team's dynamic that badly, the other members of the former team JNPR were rather easy to get along with.

"She will straight up leave them to their fates, if she's in a fight with someone else and one time, she even used Nora as a human shield against Weiss' dust attacks." Cardin made a sound of thought as he stopped talking so that Jaune could digest the information he had been fed before the ginger spoke once more.

"But yea…I didn't want to ask for help, but I can't stand getting kicked around by them every time we have class. So…any ideas on what I should do."

Jaune thought about what he knew currently about all involved before speaking. "Well, you aren't built for speed. Your build is very muscular, combined with height and the weight of your armor and weapon, you aren't going to be moving as fast as any of those eight." Cardin verbally deflated from the accurate analysis, but before he could begin to sulk, his blonde-haired friend interrupted him.

"One thing that you do have going for you is the size of your aura pool. You can take plenty of hits unlike Ren and Weiss, who out of the eight, have the smallest aura pools. Also. Cardin, besides the huge dust crystal in your weapon, does it shift at all?"

"No. Take away the dust crystal and it's just a plain mace." The blonde stayed silent for a moment before breaking down his thoughts for his friend.

"Besides your speed, the other problem you have is range. All of them have some way to keep you at bay, even with you enhancing your speed with aura. Oh! What type of weapon does the new girl use?"

"She uses these big bladed disks, she can throw them and catch them if she wants to keep you away, swing with them if you're up close, and they can both fire a laser." Jaune fell silent and evaluated what he had just heard from his friend before asking for confirmation.

"You aren't serious about the laser part."

"Jauney-boy, do I sound like I'm joking?"

"…" The blonde massaged his temples thinking about how he would have to plan for that in the future before returning his focus to what Cardin wanted.

"We're getting off track. So, like I was saying, all of them have a way to keep their distance. On top of that, all of them are incredibly skilled fighters. I see a few things you might be able to do."

"I'm all ears J.B." The ginger's tone shifted to one of hope as he waited for Jaune to elaborate.

Jaune cleared his throat before he began. "Option number one, get faster. Either by ditching your armor, or making your weapon lighter, or just trying to change your bodies build, which its a bit late for, since your body is already rather developed. But if I'm being honest, even if you were to up your speed, you probably won't win against them that way."

"Alright, so what else do you got?"

"Option two is a lot more doable. Get a ranged weapon, something that will let you force them to move and make them want a close quarters fight." At this the ginger starting to envision those fights playing out, but lacked a mental image to help him.

"Any ideas for me?" Jaune recoiled a bit from where he was walking. Cardin asking him for help was already foreign to the boy, but to trust him with suggestions for his weapon? The Atlas student couldn't help but feel slightly warmed by the notion. Jaune thought for a few moments before coming up with an image for his ginger-haired friend.

"Maybe a shotgun, or making your weapon's shaft segment and stretch past the handle to turn it into a flail if the need arises? Cardin tossed the idea back and forth in his mind, imagining fights and scenes playing out with the proposed changes made to his weapon.

"Y'know, those aren't bad ideas at all Jaune. I think I'll talk to team CFVY later and see what they think too. Anything other ideas?"

The blonde could be heard shrugging his shoulders from his end of the call before he spoke. "You could look into getting a shield. It wouldn't really slow you down any more than you are, but you'd also be able to advance against someone rather safely with one. Besides that, train with team CFVY as much as you can. They'll put you through the ringer, but you'll come out stronger for it."

"Heh, you don't have to worry about that last one Jauney-boy, I've already been training with team CFVY for a while now. Still can't beat any of them, but I can tell I'm improving. I owe a lot to Velvet for helping me out." The ginger's tone sounded different to Jaune, but Jaune was more interested in why he felt like he owed Velvet.

"Why do you owe her specifically?"

Cardin let out a chuckle before he responded. "We'll you know how her semblance works right? Well, she watches me and the rest of her team spar, and then when she goes against me, she fights using my style and habits so that I can try and find any holes in my form. It was her idea, and her weapon is no joke."

Jaune knew of the semblances of team CFVY and their weapons, so he could only nod his head in affirmation of the slightly taller boy's assessment. He was closing on the training center, its entrance no further than another hundred meters away, before a thought struck him like a lightning bolt followed by an alarming devilish grin.

"Hey Cardin, I have an idea. Do you think you could talk to team CFVY about it and get them on board?" Cardin could hear the smile on the blonde's face but was confused as to what was going on in his friend's head.

"I mean, I can try. But what are you thinking?" Jaune began to lay out the framework of his idea to the other boy, who slowly grew his own Cheshire grin as he listened on. By the time Jaune was directly in front of his destination. Both boys looked positively giddy at what the blonde was scheming.

"So, do you think you can get them on board Cardin?"

"Say no more, I'm in. I'll talk to them about it, but I think we both know they're gonna want in." The Beacon student was already making his way to the older team's dorm to let them in on Jaune's plan.

"Alright then, lemme know what they say."

"Will do Jaune." As Cardin was about to end the scroll call, Jaune's voice cut through one last time halting him.

"And Cardin?" Curious, the ginger inquired.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you." The sincerity wasn't lost on the mace-wielder, and he responded with a chuckle and his parting words.

"I'm the one who should be thanking you, but you're welcome." And with that, both boys ended the international call. As Jaune walked into the training center, he made his way to the locker room to store his workout bag. After he was done stretching, he began his warm-up with a smile on his face, and a thought waltzed to the front of his thoughts.

'Things are really starting to come together.'

* * *

**(Meanwhile-Beacon Academy)**

Things were not coming together Pyrrha decided.

Thanks to Vernal, the synergy of team PRVN was completely out of sorts. She was a terrible partner and teammate, what with her using her own teammates as a shield and abandoning them in crucial moments constantly. The blue-eyed girl's attitude and look on life also didn't help. She only respected strength, and none of the other members of PRVN could beat her soundly in a one on one.

Ren's pacifistic and quiet nature made him a target for the girl's ire. If a situation arose where she saw his pride was insulted, she would personally grow angry with the boy if he didn't assert the strength he rarely showed. She would insult and try to aggravate the boy in the hopes of starting a fight to make him more aggressive, but he would just ignore her, only further incensing the girl.

Nora was hyper, energetic, optimistic, and had a carefree attitude. These were all traits that were directly opposite of Vernal's, and the former bandit turned student of Beacon disliked the girl intensely for them. However, where as the ginger's life-long friend was indifferent and rather uncaring towards Vernal, Nora reciprocated the dislike. Seeing her best friend and crush being insulted was enough to make Nora upset, but combined with all the tan-skinned girl's qualities it made for a rather avid distaste for the girl.

Pyrrha however was the one going through the most difficulties. Unlike her former team leader, she was not a natural born leader, nor did she see herself as one. But after a talk with Ruby about being a leader meant that she had to do it regardless of how she felt, she reluctantly prepared to face the responsibilities in front of her. Unfortunately, they were proving to be a tad too daunting currently.

Vernal would ignore her orders, clash with all her teammates, and had absolutely no regard for others. Coupled with her bad attitude, she contributed nothing to her team except astounding force and combat experience, but refused to lend them even that, which only served to further bring down morale.

Not to mention how the girl affected their relationship with team RWBY. Upon Vernal first introducing herself, she was assaulted with questions by the blonde bombshell of team RWBY, Yang, and stared at cautiously by her sister Ruby. Since then, any gathering of the two groups devolved into an almost silent affair accentuated by glares and an uncomfortable tension.

Pyrrha was driven to the point of insanity, she had spent her whole day trying to reach the olive branch out to Vernal, but was either blown off or subjected to her rude mannerisms. The red head's bad mood had slipped in ever so slightly during combat class, where she accidentally stopped holding back for a few moments against Yang and dropped her aura from green to orange with a ten second onslaught of blows.

The spartan girl stood on the rooftop where she had shunned her former leader and reminded herself that she was strong. When Jaune had revealed his secret to her, part of her, the part that just wanted a companion that cared about Pyrrha Nikos, not the 'Invincible Girl', wanted to not care, wanted to offer to train and guide him. But the other side of her, the side that was built to be a protector and paragon of good saw what he did was wrong, and while she didn't reveal his secret immediately, followed through with what she thought was right.

She tried to shake her head of musing involving her former blonde leader, but couldn't do so completely, and her last thought of the blonde for the night escaped her lips.

"I wonder what he's doing right now…"

Team CFVY was lazing around their dorms absentmindedly, all the teens filling their free time in a multitude of ways.

Fox was laying in bed, taking an afternoon nap to rejuvenate himself while his teammates moved around the room. Velvet was on a laptop with her weapon system connected, fiddling with some components and programs to ensure that all was running smoothly. Yatsuhashi was reading a book about samurais and ninja, stopping to cover his mouth in mild shock every now and again, much to the amusement of Velvet. And Coco was playing video games, and when she had a moment to pause, was also working on outfits of some kind on a laptop that sat next to her.

A rapid succession of knocks was spontaneously upon their door, startling the occupants of the room, and waking a silent but still tired and grumpy Fox. Coco looked to Yatsuhashi, who just shrugged his shoulders, and she paused for a moment before making her way to the door.

As the coffee-colored fashionista opened the door to her dorm, the members of team CFVY were greeted with the sight of an out of breath Cardin Winchester, who despite his exhaustion, was sporting a large grin. The leader of the second-year team decided to question him.

"Cardin? What's up? And why do you look like you did a full sprint from the other side of Beacon to my dorm?" The teen in question finished catching his breath before standing at his full height and speaking

"It has to do with Jaune and his plan for the Vytal festival at the end of the year." As the words left his mouth, all attention was focused on the underclassman. Hurriedly, Coco grabbed the boy by his uniform and dragged him into the dorm, shutting the door behind him.

"What about it. He didn't change his mind, did he? Or get expelled?" Velvet's voice cut through the silence of the room. The ginger-haired mace wielder shook his head negative and explained.

"What! No. No, it's not like that. He came up with an idea, and it all revolves around Velv."

Intrigued, the mentioned member looked towards her friends curiously. And Fox used his semblance, telepathy, on all the other present occupants of the room to ask the big question.

'_What's he got planned?'_

The leader of team CRDL started to describe the boy's plan, and the upperclassmen couldn't help but admire the plan and the detail to which it was planned out, despite being spontaneous. After a few moments of explanation, all the students in the room sported a confident smile. Coco looked to her team, and they all looked back to her and nodded their heads. She looked back to Cardin and said the words he knew he would hear, but that were no less satisfying.

"We're in."

* * *

**(A/N)**

**Hey guys! Holy Hell this one was late. Technically it was on the last day of the second week, but I'm going to try and not make a chapter take that long again.**

**Reason why it took so long was I couldn't decide where to start the chapter at. But I was finally able to decide and finish it up, I hope you all enjoy. Also, I commissioned an artist to do two pieces for me, one that will be a unique new cover art for the story, and the other will be one for my account, that will give you a picture image of what Whitley will look like in this story. Sorry if the detail was a bit much.**

**Thanks for all the review and getting me to 10K views in less than two weeks since the story's release, it means a ton.**

**Also, I put up a poll in my bio about what side projects I should begin to conceptualize further, so go check it out if you get a chance.**

**See you all in the next chapter,**

**BlackJackHero**


	5. Chapter 5-Two Teams, One Squad

**(Chapter 5)**

**(One Month Later, Atlas, October)**

The office of James Ironwood was considered a sacred ground. The many duties that lie on the shoulders of the general kept him confined to the space for a large portion of his day. All students had seen the office's interior at least once in person, and all could attest to the office being a picture of excellence and tranquility.

Currently, the only sounds permeating the room was a satisfying sound that resembled something being put into place, then rearranged after a few moments, and a clock or timer that would be gently pat to restart its ticking. The gloved hand of the general reached out and though firm, gently wrapped his hands around a finely carved marble figure before, after a moment of deliberation, placing it in his desired locale.

He let his fingers linger on the piece for just a moment more, before letting go slowly and allowing his hand to fall upon an ornate desk clock next to the board. His opponent observed the board before he decided upon his course of action. His azure eyes narrowed by determination, he plucked his desired piece from its former resting place and tapped it into position on the board.

He was committed to his decision and let his fingertips retreat from his piece, and as he tilted his head slightly to look at the clock and reset the timer, his blonde locks bounced slightly. This back and forth had been going on for almost half an hour, and neither of the two had muttered a word since the game started.

"Check." The weathered voice of Ironwood cut out across the silence. The blonde observed the board and saw how the older had a target placed on his most essential piece and from where. Jaune whispered a swear internally, seeing that the end of the game likely grew near now that he would be forced to act as Ironwood either desired or anticipated.

Jaune castled his king piece and remaining rook, neither of which had moved since the beginning of the match. As the game sped up, both players finishing their turns faster and faster. Jaune's frown of frustration was on display for the world to see, as was Ironwoods smirk that was slowly ghosting onto his face.

Suddenly, Jaune saw that he had lured the Atlesian headmaster into a trap on the board, and let his own smirk peek through, earning of look of confusion from the general. Ironwood had moved a piece, a pawn, into the worst possible position, yet he didn't know it yet.

Jaune used a very uncommon chess move, the en passant, to take the general's freshly moved pawn and begin to attempt and wreak havoc on Ironwood's forces. The move earned a look of mild shock from the older man, not having expected such a situational method of retaliation.

Ironwood moved a piece to respond to the threat that was now in his home territory, then stopping the clock and ending his turn. As he did so however, Jaune moved one of the bishops from his side of the board that had been inactive for quite some time to be directly in front of a pawn from the center of the board. A sacrificial play to be certain, but one that Ironwood wouldn't fall for.

After Jaune stopped the clock, Ironwood immediately used on of his bishops to take Jaune's forgotten queen. Next turn the blonde's king would fall, or so the general thought. Upon doing so, the blonde smiled devilishly. He moved his bishop a space further. And his voice rang out with a joy Jaune couldn't keep contained.

"Checkmate." The general looked aghast, he observed the board to search for a possible method of escape. His king was in check by the teen's ignored sacrificial bishop. If the bishop was killed, there was a knight in position to take his king. Ironwood's king's only remaining escape route was also sealed by the blonde's rook that the king had castled with that had sneakily found its way to the essential piece's starting spot.

The older man looked on, before he let out a sigh and smiled, tipping over his king on the board.

"I'm impressed by your decisiveness. You win Jaune, good match young man." The words of the general broke the silence again as he reached his hand forward to congratulate the blonde. The blonde reached forward and met the general's hand with his own, unable to contain his grin as he did so. The blonde's expression of elation shifted to one of sheepishness, as he accepted the praise with reflection.

"Thank you headmaster, it was a difficult match. I just wish that I could've won a match sooner. But I learned a lot from this." The general nodded his head in approval of the younger man's drive to always strive for better, yet also know when he did something worthy of notice. Ironwood poured himself a cup of coffee and offered one to Jaune, who graciously accepted the offer.

As the blonde added sugar and cream to his coffee, the general began to inquire about his school life. "I've been watching the various freshman classes recordings. You've been improving at an impressive pace. Especially in combat class, climbing from the bottom rank to closing in on the middle to upper-half of the freshman students."

"I appreciate you saying so, but I didn't do anything on my own. If it wasn't for my teammates and team WICK, I'd be floundering at the bottom of the barrel trying to figure out how to get stronger." Ironwood just made a sound of thought as he sipped from his cup before he spoke again.

"By chance, did you ever play any strategy games against Ozpin? He happens to love them more than even I do." Since the first strategy game Jaune and the general played, they made a habit of playing some from of strategy game a daily procedure, unless one of them had a prior engagement. Chess, checkers, conquest, battle fleet, tactical risk and many more, Jaune had never won a single match against the older man, until today which broke his fifty-six straight loss streak.

"No sir, I never had the chance." The older man chuckled before responding.

"In all my _years_ of knowing Oz and having had chances to test both strategies and wit against him, I can count on my hands the amount of times I've won." That notion sent a shiver down Jaune's spine. It took him countless times of testing different tactics and strategies to manage one win against the leader of the Atlesian military, how long would he have to toil and fail to win against the man who gave him a chance to be a huntsman before he could secure a win of his won?

At the same time, Ironwood was having similar thoughts of the younger man. From the first game they'd played, he'd been able to ascertain the potential that lie within the blonde teen. Every loss that the boy suffered was actually a hidden gift, fueling his growth further. He pushed the thoughts aside for another time as he tried to refocus the young team leader.

"Since you did best me today, I'll reward you with the greatest resource that any tactician can have; information. Would you like to hear it?"

"Y-Yes sir! Please, go ahead!" The blonde teen stammered out.

"This year, we are going to try implementing a concept for the freshman class that will continue until you all graduate from Atlas."

"Alright."

"Tell me Jaune, do you know the biggest problem that arises when two teams find themselves working together in the field?"

"…Personalities?" When the student answered, Ironwood leaned back into his seat and drank a bit more of his coffee and continued.

"Explain." At this, the blonde seemed to shift, not uncomfortably, but in trying to describe why he answered as he did.

"Well, I guess maybe 'personalities' fits the description, but maybe it would be more on target to say dynamics. Like, let's say for example our squad was sent to help another huntsman squad; our squad is rather well balanced, but three of us prefer short range combat, but the team we're being sent out to help all prefer long range combat and use high area damage weaponry. Our combat styles wouldn't mesh at all; if we go to engage, they can't use their weapons without possibly hitting us, and if they lay down fire, we won't be as effective, which would just hinder us both."

Ironwood smiled into his cup, impressed and slightly proud of his student's deduction. He motioned with his hand for Jaune to continue, who shrugged his shoulders before resuming his thought process.

"Besides that, there are tons of other factors that could affect multiple team efficiency. Relations between teams is probably the second biggest thing. Being able to trust that other team like you do your own and knowing how both how they think and fight."

"Excellent reasoning Jaune, and all correct. We already pair individual students as well as student pairs to form teams. So, as an experiment, we'll be pairing all the freshman teams together into squads." Now it was the blonde's turn to make a sound of thought, he sipped from his sweetened coffee and debated the idea of forming a squad with another team. It sounded like a lot of benefits with little downside, but he had to make sure.

"General, what exactly does forming a squad entail?" The older man rubbed his chin in thought before he answered.

"Well for starters, you and whoever the other team captain is will become co-leaders for your squad. Whether or not you and your squad mates do any teambuilding exercises is at your discretion but is certainly advised. Both squad halves can be sent out to missions around Atlas and Mantle at the same time, but if either team is sent out on an assignment out of the kingdom but still on the continent, the assigned team will have a graduated huntsman leading them, and other half of their squad must remain on standby at the academy in the event that the other team requests backup."

"What if there is a mission outside the continent of Solitas?"

"In the event that there is a mission on a different continent, the entirety of the squad will go and will be accompanied by at least one huntsman. Also, at least once a semester, you and your squad will be required to take an assignment together outside the kingdom. The huntsman that leads you will include observations about how your squad preformed and cooperated, which will influence your grade."

Jaune nodded his head in response. It was a lot of information to digest at once, but all interesting to the blonde. He finished off his cup of coffee and asked one last question to the headmaster.

"General, one last thing. How will squads be made? Will we get to form our own squads, or will we be paired together by the academy?"

"I will be creating the squads myself. In fact, I've already finished. Oh, and a couple last important details. If a squad in its entirety wishes to go on a mission together, they may. The other team doesn't have to stay back if they accompany each other. And if members of a squad that are on different teams wish to take a mission together, we will permit that as well, granted both team captains are in agreement." At this point, Jaune too had finished his coffee and was in the process of pouring himself another cup as the older man answered. The blonde knew it was a long shot, but it couldn't hurt to ask.

"Any chance you'd be willing to let me know who my team is paired with?" The general let a rare smug smirk slip as he drank his coffee.

"And ruin the surprise? I think not." Jaune sighed, having anticipated the declining of his request, but not the general's mirth. He thanked the general for another game and made his way back to his team's dorm.

* * *

The time read 18:27, and Jaune was at his usual lookout spot. For his personal physical training, he had started working out in the training center, but had found a much better way to train.

**(Flashback-three weeks ago)**

Jaune was alone at the training center, the time on the wall read 20:40. He had completed his workout routines and was now in front of a punching bag. Sweat cascaded down his face and arms as he threw punch after punch, weaving in occasional kicks, knee strikes, and elbow thrusts at the hanging punishment absorber.

He vaguely heard talking in the background but was focused into his routine and chose to ignore it. The training center was open 24/7, so while unusual for anyone to be here this late besides him, it wasn't impossible. He kept going, gradually increasing his pace.

"Good energy kid, but your form could use some work." Jaune jumped slightly and turned to his left to see a dark-skinned woman with black hair. She was rather tall, a few inches taller than himself, and had a muscular build. Realizing he hadn't responded to the unnamed woman, he picked up his side of the conversation as he panted.

"Yeah. I've been getting better with my weapon, but I don't want to let any of my skills fall behind the rest of what I can do."

"So, you're here, later and longer than anyone else in your class, working on your body and hand-to-hand."

"That about sums it up," The boy's expression went from one of exhaustion to one of happy determination before he spoke again, "I'm very grateful for getting an opportunity to come here and learn how to be a huntsman. I'm also _very _behind the rest of my class in just about everything, so I have to work harder than everyone else to earn my spot."

The large woman chuckled and put her hands on her hips. "Heh, I like your attitude kid. Name's Elm, what do they call you?"

"Jaune. No last name." Elm raised an eyebrow at that, but chose not to comment on it, instead grabbing his attention by changing the subject.

"Follow me to the ring kid, since you're already pretty worn out. I'll let you watch me square up against a training bot, maybe you'll learn something." And with that she walked off further into the building, Jaune trailing behind her with a tired grin.

**(Present day)**

Jaune halted himself in his reminiscing to check his clock again. 18:35. The person he was waiting for must have been running late, so he stayed in his spot on the rooftop watching for them.

Jaune truly was grateful to Elm and had learned a bit more about her. She had graduated from Atlas four years ago and was currently enlisted as a huntsman in the Atlesian military. She talked of her team briefly but didn't go into detail. He only saw her on days when she didn't have a mission, so it had been a few days since they saw each other.

Jaune's attention was focused when he saw the person he was waiting for on the streets below. Dark-skinned with greenish-black hair and a furry tail. Jaune had yet to formally meet the faunus he had been shadowing since he had first started running across Atlas during his morning exercises. Introducing yourself after borderline stalking someone for so long felt awkward.

The male canine faunus did some stretches before starting to jog down the sidewalks of the city. Jaune stealthily jumped down from the roof to an alley way below, putting up his hood before he jogged, albeit slower, behind the man. After a fifteen-minute jog, the man suddenly broke out into a full sprint, and cut down an alley, like he did every time Jaune managed to find him.

Jaune sped up as well, and when he turned down the alley the faunus cut into, he caught sight of the man flashily scaling a fence and rolling into a run after he hit the ground again. Jaune emulated him the best he could, which was much better than when he'd first started. The blonde constantly lost sight of the older man and/or fell on his face when he originally attempted to shadow the faunus.

Parkour and free running. This is what Jaune's mundane routine of jogging around Atlas had transformed into after once watching the man pass him up and preform multiple displays of acrobatic skills and experience. After that, Jaune spent a week trying to find where the man would start his run before he finally succeeded.

Today's run went on for fifteen minutes past the warm-up. Eventually, they reached a part of town near the academy and the man began his cooldown jog. Jaune was elated that he managed to fully follow the man for the first time today, and up ahead he saw the faunus slow to a walk and turn down an alleyway. Jaune stopped following the man and turned down a road to make his way back to the academy.

Jaune paused in front of a vending machine to get himself a drink and after he put in some change, debated on which beverage to purchase. After a moment of thought he decided, and as he moved his hand to select his drink, a voice rung out.

"Stay." Jaune's whole body froze, he could still think he noticed, but he wasn't even able to twitch a finger. A hand reached out past him and pressed the button he was reaching for, causing the drink to dispense out at the bottom of the machine.

A dark-skinned hand grabbed the drink from below and as the drink's cap was twisted off, Jaune felt himself regain the ability to move. He took a step back and turned to look at the owner of the mysterious voice, though he suspected he knew who the individual was.

The owner was the canine faunus he had been shadowing for many weeks now, looking curious, amused, but also slightly on guard.

"…Hey?" The blonde managed to lamely say. The faunus took a large draw from what would have been Jaune's drink, and letting out a laugh at the boy, he responded.

"So, this is what my stalker looks like?" The lighter-skinned teen quickly waved his hands in front of his face trying to clear away the misunderstanding.

"N-No no no, that wasn't what was going on, I swear!"

"Really? Then what would you call following someone every other day for weeks on end?" The blonde winced before responding.

"When you put it like that…it sounds really bad. Look, this is all my fault. Let me introduce myself, I'm Jaune." Suddenly the canine faunus became very interested.

"Wait, Jaune? That means you know Elm." The darker skinned man let loose a laugh at the situation he found himself in, while Jaune let loose a sigh of relief now that the tension was dispelled before questioning the greenish haired man.

"Yeah, I know Elm, she's been helping me with my in-gym workouts and hand to hand." At that statement, it was the faunus male's turn to wince.

"Ouch." The blonde just nodded his head in a solemn agreement before he spoke again.

"Is it safe to assume that you are either friends with her or a part of her team?"

"Yup! Name's Marrow, the newest member of the elite team that Elm is a part of, the Ace Ops!" The now identified Marrow exclaimed with no attempt to hide the pride in his voice or the joy that filled him, made apparent also by the uncontrollable wagging of his tail. Suddenly, a realization occurred to Jaune.

"Wait. Elm talked about me to you guys?" At this, Marrow couldn't prevent a snicker from escaping him as he responded.

"Yup, told us about this gold-hearted freshman with crappy C.Q.C. form, and how she mops the floor with you in the ring every time you train together."

Jaune deflated a bit but was happy he made a, at least in his opinion, rather decent first impression. Marrow noticed the slightly disappointed expression Jaune wore and spoke again. "Hey, be happy you're in the gym with Elm instead of Harriet. Harriet is our close quarters specialist, and even Elm rarely gets a win off her."

The blonde teen blanched before he turned back to the vending machine and paid for another drink, this time getting to enjoy the refreshing beverage as he gulped from the bottle. Marrow finished his drink off before tossing the empty container into the nearby trashcan and centering his attention back onto the blonde.

"Alrighty, now that the introductions are outta the way, why exactly have you been 'not stalking' me for so long?"

Jaune leaned against the wall and put the cap for his drink back on before looking Marrow in the eyes. "I was trying to learn how to do what you were doing today. The first time I ever saw you doing parkour, I was out on my evening run, and you flipped past me and did a ton of other cool tricks off, well, anything you wanted to. So, I decided I was going to follow you and try to copy you until I could parkour as well as you do."

The faunus in question puffed up his chest in pride as his tail continued to wag energetically. "I am pretty great huh?" Marrow let out a small smile before he leaned against the wall as well before clearing his throat and adopting a lecture like tone.

"Do you know the purpose of parkour/free running?" At this Jaune shook his head before the older man continued.

"The purpose of parkour is to take the most direct route to reach a destination possible while conserving energy and momentum. So, if you know the exact location of where you want to go, instead of having to waste time turning down roads and following traffic, you could scale buildings, fences, etc. All in order to minimalize moving in any direction but where you need too." The dark skinned faunus looked as if he was about to add on to what he said, but Jaune interjected before he could.

"And let me guess, all this at the benefit of looking cool while doing it?" The blonde wore a smirk that was met with Marrow's laugh. Once he steadied his breathing, he spoke again.

"That would be free running, but now you're starting to get it kid. And while a nice benefit of learning to move like this is looking cool, you can incorporate the acrobatics you use into you're fights. Making you look cool and move much more unpredictably." As Marrow finished speaking, he held a look that told the younger man that he was neither lying nor exaggerating the usefulness of parkour.

Jaune looked down at his own body and examined himself. Having never had any formal training, he lacked a definite build. He knew he would have to decide if wanted to be built for speed or power. If he focused on his speed, he wouldn't be able to hit as hard as he might need to for his team, but if he focused on his power, he might not be able to keep up with his team that seemed to be built around speed and finesse.

A hand landing on his shoulders stole from his wonderings. Jaune looked back to Marrow who wore a cheesy grin and had a thumbs up on his other hand.

"Look, you seem like an alright guy, so from now on, don't be a stranger. If you catch me during a run or wait for me where I start, just join me," the canine faunus' expression took on one of confidence as he continued, "_IF_ you can keep up that is."

Jaune's expression shifted into one of determination at the challenge issued to him.

* * *

Another week passed before team JCKP found themselves seated in the auditorium along with the rest of their freshman peers. Team WICK was lost somewhere among the large crowd, but before any of the four teens could scope them out, Ironwood took the stage and began explaining the same squad mechanic that he informed Jaune of.

Knowing that there would likely not be any new information to what Jaune had been told, his team decided to make some light conversation from where they sat in the back of the large room.

"Hey guys." The improving leader spoke out to his friends, grabbing their attention.

"What's up Jaune?" The voice of Neon responded in a low tone, as to not interrupt any other shushed conversations, or worse, the general.

"We've been getting along great, but I was thinking of a good bonding idea for us, and I was hoping we might each spend a whole day with each other individually out of the Academy since we have our week of break coming up."

Penny looked positively radiant at the suggestion and quietly exclaimed to her friends. "That sounds like a wonderful idea Partner!" Flynt smiled and nodded his head, and Neon, seemingly infected by Penny's energy, shook her longtime friend and partner.

"…and now, I'll be announcing the squads. First, will team JCKP make their way to the stage." The four friends' heads snapped back to the headmaster from where he spoke on the stage, all slightly worried as he seemed to have picked them out of a particularly large crowd from their position in the back. One by one, the four rose and shuffled past the other freshman that were seated in the last row.

As they stood side by side on the stage, the gathered student populace sat quiet in suspense, all wanting to know who the first squad created would be. And after a moment of soaking in the anxious feelings bouncing around the room, Ironwood spoke once more.

"And their partner team. Will team WICK join us as well." As the sister team his friend oversaw made their way up to the stage, the blonde seemed surprised. He had quite a few thoughts running around inside his head, but decided to entertain them later. Seeing both teams standing next to each other, Ironwood called forward Jaune and Whitley.

"You two will be the co-leaders of your new squad. As such, you will have a bit more responsibilities than you did previously. If you see a squad mate struggling, help them. If you see an opportunity to better oneself, share it with your squad. And if you are out in the field, trust your squad with your life."

The two young leaders nodded to each other and shook hands as Ironwood gave them one last nod of the head and some parting words. "You're free to leave since you have your squad. And to all of you," This snatched the attention of the blonde's squad mates and team, all of them straightening their posture as they gave the general their full attention. "I expect great things." And with that he signaled that they were free to leave.

As the newly formed squad walked through the halls towards the dorm, Neon decided to start a whole new conversation around a topic still fresh in all their minds.

"Man! We are like, so lucky to all be on a squad together. We're going to be unstoppable!" The cat faunus managed to elicit a chuckle from her dark blue wearing squad mate.

"True. I am personally rather glad that your team is who we managed to get paired with." Kobalt spoke out in his deep voice with a small phantom of a smile tugging at his lips.

Jaune and Whitley, while plenty satisfied with their squad, were thinking of something else entirely. They shared a look before Whitley decided to gather the group's attention.

"I have no complaints about the squad arrangements. In fact, I believe that this is the best squad for us to have been paired with, but I find it odd." At this the squad of teens all stopped and gave their attention to the two leaders. Ivori tilted his head and decided to voice the general thought of the group.

"What do you mean Whit?" The boy in question took the nickname surprisingly well considering his upbringing, in that he seemed unfazed by it, before he answered.

"This whole squad system that was explained to us. The way they described it made it sound as if they were doing this differently. Jaune what are your thoughts?"

All eyes were on the blonde as they waited to hear his deduction, and after a few moments more of thinking, he voiced his reasoning. "Well I agree with Whitley. It seems kinda weird how they paired us. I expected for the higher ranked squads to be paired with lower ones. I know that method would probably hinder the stronger squad, but in the long run, it may also help the other team improve. The last thing I expected was to get paired with the other top ranked team."

At this, the group was understanding what the leaders of the newly formed squad were so confused about, as Whitley continued his line of thought.

"Exactly. I've been trying to ascertain why this was, but could only come up with three sensible reasons. First is that they paired us based on how our teams interact. Second, they may have paired us due to the admittedly lower skill levels of Jaune and I, intending for us to help each other climb higher. And third, the reason that makes the most sense, they paired us off to have their two strongest teams among the freshmen form a squad."

"Okay, the first two I understand, but you lost me on that third one chief." The ever-curious tone of Neon sung out, to which earned an explanation from her leader.

"Think about it guys, we're all here at this academy to become huntsmen and huntresses. So that raises the question; why this academy? Why not a different academy in a different nation? What is so good about Atlas Academy that should attract huntsmen prep school graduates?" As the tall blonde of team JCKP voiced the shared deduction with his squad, Kobalt raised a hand to his chin and looked off to the side while he thought aloud.

"So, we're not just a squad that's meant to lead by example and be the most successful, we're also meant to be good press for the academy. The headmaster is a rather shrewd man indeed." The stoic teen in blue only got nods of the head from his friends.

'You don't know the half of it.' Jaune could only comment mentally as he recalled many a game where he lost to the general's ulterior motives and strategies. His musing was cut short however, when Ivori decided to voice his opinions on everything speculated upon thus far.

"If all this is true, that means that we'll most likely be expected to stand out especially so during the Vytal Festival Tournament." All present could only nod, and Jaune's plan to deal with his former team imposed on his train of thought before he brushed it to the back of his mind.

After hearing her squad's pondering, Ciel decided to add her two cents into the conversation. "In any case, regardless of whether we're correct in our assumptions or not, does this truly change anything?"

As the dark-skinned girl said this, the group all gave her their attention. She merely cleared her throat and brushed a stray bang back into place before she resumed speaking.

"I don't know about any of you, but I'm not attending Atlas Academy with any intent less than being the best. I have that expectation for myself, for my partner, for my team," she paused and turned to the members of team JCKP before she continued. "and since we're all members of a squad now, I have that expectation for you as well. I know what we're all capable of, and I won't accept any effort less than our best." The punctual teen ended her monologue with a rare smile, and the group found it impossible to not mimic it themselves.

"Well, after a speech like that one, I think we're all on the same page. But, if we're made to be a show squad like Kobalt said, how are we supposed to show off?" Neon inquired to her friends. Flynt answered her question soon after with his own speculation.

"Probably gonna have us go on missions around Mantle and Atlas. Stuff that'll put us around common folk to try and earn their support, maybe even around kids so that more will wanna be huntsman like us, instead of corporate big wigs and such." Jaune nodded at the trumpeter's assessment before he decided to reinsert himself into the discussion at hand.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we even got missions outside Solitas. Atlas has bases around Remnant, so if there are any low risk missions on a different continent, we might get sent out for exposure."

As the blonde said that, Penny's eyes widened, and within a blink of an eye she breached his personal space, finding herself on the tips of her toes pressed up against him so that she could ensure his attention was solely on her as she asked her question.

"Really!? Do you really, really think we'll get a chance to visit abroad!?" She capped her outburst with a hopeful smile, but her face shifted to one of confusion as her partner's face was bright red and he was abnormally stiff. She heard snickers and turned her head around her slightly to see the various reactions of her friends. Neon and Flynt were laughing quietly, Whitley and Ivori only smiled and shook their heads slightly while Kobalt's hand met his forehead and Ciel pinched the bridge of her nose, though they were both wearing smiles.

She turned her attention back to Jaune and noticed that his temperature seemed to have risen, and immediately became concerned for his health.

"Partner, you seem distressed and it feels as though your temperature has risen. I sincerely hope you don't have a fever. Here, let me check." Before the tall blonde could react, she grabbed the sides of his head from her shorter height so that she could gently bring him down lower and pressed her forehead to his.

Once she did this, Kobalt sighed and took a few steps away from the group to get a drink from the vending machine left nearly unnoticed in the large corridor. Neon, feeling as though her leader had been tormented enough, chuckled softly to herself before pulling Penny away gently from her close proximity to the embarrassed blonde.

"I think he's fine Penny, you are crowding him a bit though." Penny realized her teammate was right, and her eyes widened, and began to apologize to her partner.

"Oh dear! Neon's right, I'm sorry Partner, I didn't mean-" But before she could begin to conduct a train of apologies, Neon cut her off with a wave of the hand.

"Don't worry about it Penny, Jaune just needs a second to cool down and he'll be fine, trust me." At this, Neon flashed a knowing and mischievous smirk to Jaune who seemed to shrink inside himself more than those around him thought possible. She turned her attention back to her fellow ginger who was now sporting a beaming smile.

"That's splendid! I was worried he might be getting sick," Penny looked confused again as she took a moment to think before she asked Neon another question. "but if he isn't sick, then while was his heart beating irregularly? And why was his body temperature felt above what is considered normal?" Suddenly, everyone focused their gaze on Jaune who now had his face buried in his hands. Neon laughed before she responded to her teammate.

"I'll tell you another time Penny. Say, why don't we go get something to eat, I'm starving." Penny nodded to the cat faunus and replied to her with a nod of her head as the two began walking towards the cafeteria. As Jaune stood there with the rest of his friends, he lowered his hands and looked to each of them, sporting an embarrassed blush on his face. Ciel and Whitley simply followed the two girls in walking to the cafeteria, patting jaune on the back and shoulder respectively as they passed him. Ivori flashed him a thumbs up, and Kobalt returned with a cold canned soda, tossing it to the blonde gently.

Jaune pressed the can to his forehead soothingly, nodding in appreciation to the blue clad brawler. Flynt hooked an arm around Jaune's shoulders and flashed him a smug grin as they too began to make their way to the cafeteria. However, there was one thought that all the members of the group were thinking, save Jaune and Penny.

'He's got it bad for her.'

* * *

Later that night, Jaune was staring at the ceiling from his bed, he could only hope that he and Whitley were able to catch up to their friends soon. He was also still wide awake so late at night after the event that transpired in the hallway corridor with Penny.

As he lay there, thoughts of the future, and friends, and his partner storming his mind, he noticed he was beginning to become unnaturally drowsy. He tried to fight it off but was failing spectacularly. He attempted to call out to his friends in the hopes of waking one of them, but as he tried to form the words, his eyelids felt so heavy it was getting hard to keep them open. His words were slurred and within seconds, unconsciousness claimed him.

**(Meanwhile in Ironwood's Office)**

The older man sat in his seat looking out over Atlas and let loose a sigh. Being a huntsman was a dangerous line of work, one that didn't promise a long life or safety to those who would walk its path. For those in charge of training future huntsman, the road only got more trying. They had to push their students to improve and give them tests to see who were cut out to be huntsman, and who weren't.

He looked over to the computer screen on his desk and saw that the sleeping agent was reported to have been deployed through the ventilation system in the first-year dorms. By now, it had most definitely taken effect and all the huntsman hopefuls were sound asleep. He gave the order for the students to be rounded up and brought to the bull head docks along with their weapons and supplies.

He truly hoped that in death his sins as a leader would be forgiven, because the first real test for the freshman class of Atlas would begin tomorrow, roughly 100 clicks away from the edge of Mantle, on the opposite side of one of the mountains outside the city. He could only pray that his students had been trained sufficiently enough that they would survive their first test.

* * *

**(A/N)**

**Hey everyone, didn't forget about y'all, but with everything going on that's forcing us to stay inside and away from school/work/gatherings/etc, I've had a hard time getting this chapter finished. But I'm proud to say that we are finally getting into the first bit of the story that will focus on combat and trials by fire. ****Also I enjoyed writing that little fluff bit near the end of this chapter.**

**Two last little bits before I get to writing the next chapter. First, I changed my profile pic to what Whitley looks like in this story, so if you wanted a visual aid, just go check out my profile pic. Second, thanks to everyone who voted on the poll so far, and I'm gonna go ahead and ask again that if you have the time after reading this chapter, please go check out the poll in my bio, and leave a vote so I know what I should look into possibly exploring for you all to read.**

**Stay healthy, stay inside, stay safe,**

**B.J.H.**


	6. Chapter 6-Trials

**(Chapter 6)**

Jaune awoke with a start.

Cold. That was the very first thought that the blonde had as he rapidly rolled out of bed. As he stood up, he took his time regaining his bearings. He cursed in his mind as he let out an involuntary yawn.

The first thing he took note of was that he was inside some sort of shed devoid of windows. He looked back at his bed to see that on the other side of it was a hiking bag, his outfit, and on the wall above it hung his weapon and quiver. He craned his neck to the right, eliciting a satisfying pop sound to which he responded with a hiss of relief. There, next to a door, sat a table with three items atop it.

Jaune, now fully awake, made his way over to the neatly folded outfit, before changing into it and focusing on the hiking bag, opening it to reveal its contents. Inside was a spile and canteen for hydration, a large combat knife, rations, a thermal tent, dust powered lantern, tinderbox, and a sleeping bag that was rolled tightly and attached to the bottom of the pack. He strapped the knife to his right thigh, and grabbed his weapon, shifting it into its shield form before hoisting it on his left arm.

Satisfied with how he had fastened his cargo, he made his way over to the table and saw a piece of paper resting beneath what looked like a large wristband. Moving the accessory out of the way, he picked up the paper and began to read what was there.

"_Students,_

_If you are reading this, you have awoken and are more than likely confused as to where you are and what is occurring. Rest assured that this was no accident, nor is this a cruel joke. This is your midterm practical exam._

_You are at least 100 clicks away from the edge of Mantle. Every student's bag should come with enough supplies to last them individually for 14 days._

_Atop the table are three items. On the left is a map of the area, showing the edges of Mantle that you should reasonably find yourself heading to. On the right is a handheld transceiver. Once you enter the receiving range of your team or squad mates, (10 clicks), you'll be able to communicate with them. And finally, the tracking bracelet._

_The tracking bracelet reveals your location, but not identity, to any fellow students who activate the bracelet's hard-light compass display. Go ahead and try pressing down on the crystal in the center of the bracelet once you have it where you'd like it to be._

Jaune picked up the bracelet and examined it for a moment, before he equipped it on his shield arm, twisting the bracelet so that the crystal faced him. He pressed the crystal tentatively and was rewarded with a circular compass made of light appearing above his forearm, as well as a small timer in the corner of the compass grid. He admired the unfamiliar tech, before he took notice of the gradually appearing pips of light on edges of the display. Having an inkling as to what they were, he went back to reading the note.

_The other pips of light on the edges of your compass are, as I'm sure some of you have guessed, other students with the compass activated. The color of the pip shows the aura reserves of that student. As you're reading this, you should be in the bright green. Be wary of keeping the compass activated for too long at a time however, while the compass is active it emits a signal that, for an unknown reason, attracts grimm._

_Twice a day, every day for the next two weeks, we will also ping the location of all the bracelets, revealing the location of any students who don't have the compass activated. Once at sunrise, once at sunset._

_Next, here are the conditions for passing this exam:_

_1\. Students must arrive at Mantle by the fourteenth day before the timer runs out._

_2\. Students must be in possession of their tracking bracelet._

_3\. To pass, a team in its __**entirety**__ must pass._

_And finally, the conditions that will cause you to fail the exam:_

_1\. Attacking another student is grounds for immediate failure, expulsion, and possible criminal charges._

_2\. Arriving at Mantle without the tracking bracelet __**assigned to you at the start of the exam.**_

_Good Luck and Godspeed Students,_

_General and Headmaster, James Ironwood._

Jaune tucked the note away into his backpack, and let out a sigh at the troublesome situation he's found himself in. He let the transceiver hang from one of his belt loops via the carabiner clip and stuffed the map into his backpack where it would be safe from the elements. Now, with all his cargo, the blonde leader thought of his current situation.

Each student was at minimum 100 clicks away from the edge of Mantle, and no telling how far away from each other. 100 clicks translated to slightly over 62 miles, meaning the slowest pace he could take would be around four and a half miles a day to arrive on the last day, not factoring in the time he would spend looking for his team.

The blonde decided he had thought idly enough and decided to begin his march to find his friends and pass the exam. He grabbed the knob of the door and twisted before he pulled the door towards him to exit the shed.

He was met with a blast of frigid air, causing him to cringe and squint his eyes. Stepping out onto the snow-covered ground, Jaune brought the door closed behind him, and rubbed his eyes with his gloved hands. Once he was finished massaging his eyes, he opened them and found his breath taken away.

The landscape was both intricate and weathered, but simple and delicate. He saw his warm breath on the cold air as he looked at the literal frozen wonderland around him. The ground he stood on was generously powdered with snow, and the trees around him all wore a heavy coating of snow as if it was their bark. From the tree limbs hunt icicles of various lengths, serene in their overhang. He looked to the left and saw an outcrop of rocks from where water had once flowed in warmer times, if the frozen in time beauty of the water, now a long cascading line of pure, clear ice that led to the ground was any indication.

He admired the scenery around him and took solace in that though he was a great distance away from anyone he knew, he found a picture as majestic as his first view of Atlas. As he turned on the bracelet's compass once more, he learned from the pips of light that most likely every student, save for himself, were all in a more north-eastern section of the wild. As he prepared to head into the direction of most of his peers, another pip appeared on his compass.

What grabbed his attention about this light signature compared to the others was that this one came from the north-west and was slightly larger. Jaune debated in his head as to why this one signature looked larger than the rest on the map, and could only theorize that maybe they were closer, and that beyond a certain point, the size of the markers changed, as the other pips were of varying size, but smaller than this one outlier.

Jaune had a choice to make, either leave that one pip be, and head in the direction that most likely would lead him to his friends, or go off away from where his objective was, so that neither he nor this mysterious classmate would be alone in their trek. To him, the choice was obvious, and after adjusting his shield so that it sat more comfortably, he began making his way north-west.

* * *

Jaune was lucky he could boast such a large aura pool, because he'd been marching through a desolate frozen forest since the early morning when he awoke stranded without any back-up. The first ping had revealed that whoever was to his north-west knew of his presence and intent, as they seemed to be moving towards him as well but would only activate their tracking bracelet once roughly every hour to most likely confirm the location of the blonde.

Due to having kept the bracelet active all day throughout his traversing the land, Jaune did find himself in quite a few skirmishes, though they were nothing he wasn't equipped to handle. Sabyrs and boarbatusks had been the only grimm he encountered since the exam started, but Jaune didn't dare underestimate them. Despite these grimm typically being more 'quantity over quality' enemies, any species of them were dangerous, and had caused death to those who were either unprepared, or who underestimated their opponents.

Testament to this was the missing aura Jaune had lost. Though for most, being at 70 percent of one's total aura capacity after a full day of being in grimm territory could be considered fantastic, it was a reminder to the blonde of how far he still had left to go. Jealousy rung throughout the teen, knowing his former friends at Beacon could all dispatch multiple grimm much faster and much more efficiently. He made a mental note to spend more time in grimm combat simulations once he and his team completed their exam, as it couldn't hurt to have practice against a more unpredictable enemy in a risk-free environment.

Seeing the sun beginning to get low, Jaune shook himself from his musings and checked the compass to see the location of all his peers. All of them seemed much further then when he'd started that morning, and all day he'd worried about the safety of his team. Another countdown started that would initiate the second and last ping of the day, and he waited to see how far his mysterious classmate was from him.

As the ping occurred, Jaune only had to wait a mere moment before he saw the pip of light he was searching for. It was now actually on the compass instead of being at the edges, reminding him of a radar. Regardless, as the location of the last pip had been revealed, the blue eyed leader picked up the pace to try and rendezvous with whoever was out here with him.

After another five minutes of walking, albeit at a faster pace, Jaune found himself at another slice of sightseer heaven. Behind him stood the entrance to the forest he'd walked and battled through for hours and miles, in front of him from his elevated position upon a cliff face, lay and unobstructed view of a valley that had been blanketed by the forces of cold.

The same beautiful view from earlier, but on a much larger, much grander scale. Jaune took a moment to just breathe and appreciate that there were some things that even the grimm couldn't spoil, or at the very least, hadn't yet managed to. He looked down to the compass once more and saw that whoever he spent the day trying to find, was at most another five minutes of walking ahead.

The blonde's face shifted to one of exhaustion as he now had another choice to make. Would he wait for them atop the cliff face, or would he descend to them and meet them in the valley? Jaune pulled out his map, which only now as he was preparing to plan a course of action was able to appreciate how finely detailed it was and looked for possible routes of travel.

Unfortunately, this truly was one of life's rare situations where there really was only one option from which to proceed. If he descended to his mysterious classmate, they would have the safety of a wall to their back to set up camp at, as well as each other. They could take turns keeping watch and begin traveling at first light, and from there make their way north-east to Mantle. From what the map was telling him, the only exits out of the valley where the bottle-necked opening to the east, and the wide-open expanse to the west. Looking at the height of the cliff face, the blonde reasoned that climbing back up to his current position tomorrow wouldn't be feasible.

The blonde redeposited the map into his back and shifted his still unnamed weapon into its lance form and swapped it to his right hand. Knowing that there really was only one option, he looked over the landscaped and blinked, hoping to commit it to memory, before he stepped off the cliff face into a freefall.

As he fell with his body parallel to the earth below, he was calm, and almost laughed to himself as memories of his descent during the Beacon initiation exam plagued his mind. Now, he was different. As he held the lance in his dominant hand, he prepared to shift it into its umbrella form, but was halted as he craned his neck upwards to look straight. He was rewarded with seeing the world in layers.

The darkening sky above almost seemed painted with orange, red, yellow, and hints of pink ahead of him as the last few rays of sun peeked over one of the mountains that lay in his field of vision. He refocused himself on his current objective, to meet up with his fellow first year, which would require him to survive his fall in order to do.

Shifting so that he was perpendicular to the ground, he shifted the lance into its umbrella form, and slowed his descent. Holding on to the pole near the canopy, he hooked a boot around the shaft near the bottom and stood firmly on the slightly tilted surface of the weapon's body with the other, changing his fall to a float. With style. His open arm hovered in front of him, reading the compass so that he could adjust his descent towards his peer accordingly. Seeing that they were only a short walk away from the rock face, he angled his weapon forwards to speed up his descent and adjust direction, opting to meet them and walk back to where he planned to set up camp for the night.

As his boots gently pressed to the ground of a small open patch in the trees, Jaune shifted his weapon back into its shield form before sitting down to rest on a tree stump to wait for whoever he spent the day trying to meet. A few minutes passed before the blonde could faintly hear boots crunching over snow and fallen twigs. He stood back up from his makeshift seat and waited for his fellow student to enter the clearing. As the sound stopped, he could see the faint silhouette of someone standing at the edge of the relatively small clearing.

He was about to call out to them, but before he could process what had happened, he was laying on his back staring up at the sky with a weight resting on top of him. Looking down at his chest, Jaune was able to make out the hair color of whoever it was that had tackled him. He was greeted by the sight of familiar short, ginger, curly hair.

A grin that was usually reserved for the girl who'd tackled him spread across Jaune's face, unable to contain his joy at his first sign of things starting to look up. The girl that was both hugging him and keeping him from getting up, looked up from her position and gave him her trademark that seemed to brighten up the darkening, cold night.

Despite the odds, Jaune had reunited with his partner.

* * *

After setting up camp at the rock face, Jaune and Penny sat across from each other in front of the fire the blonde started to help them keep warm. Jaune was currently inspecting the inner mechanisms of his weapon for anything that may have accidentally gotten lodged within during his bouts with the grimm, absentmindedly chewing on a stick of beef jerky that was included in his rations.

Jaune looked up from his task to see his partner sitting with her legs crossed, elbows on her knees, hands holding up her head watching him as he worked. She was wearing her ever present smile as she was caught staring, and the blonde flushed a bit at having been so absorbed in his work, he didn't notice Penny staring at him so intently.

But Jaune smiled back to her and went back to his work, this being a rather common occurrence. Jaune would be doing something, be it studying his notes, playing his games, or maintaining his weapon, and all the while his partner would sit off to the side and observe as he did. At first it confused the blonde, but after the first week of living in the same room as the ginger, he grew accustomed to it. The one thing that he always wondered was why she would never watch their teammates like she would him, but he just shrugged it off.

The two exceptions to her watching him was either when Jaune would practice playing his guitar on one of the accessible rooftops of the academy that would overlook parts of the school and city, and when team JCKP would practice playing their instruments together. Jaune learned from the first day that his friends were all musically gifted, Flynt especially as he was able to play multiple instruments, and that Penny had the ability to play piano a cut above what he could ever have imagined.

When Jaune would sit on the rooftops and play his acoustic guitar, or occasionally the bass or electric guitars that belonged to Flynt, Penny would accompany him to the roof. When he would begin to play, instead of sitting across from him, she would sit directly behind him, back to back and would just listen to him play. This became somewhat of a routine for the two, along with the constant teasing he endured at the hands of Neon, who caught them both one time, but didn't intrude, waiting until the next day to bombard Jaune with questions.

As he thought of all the memories he'd made with his friends, a sudden realization had occurred to him. Jaune had never once seen Penny eat with them, sure she'd be there, but she never would get food. The more the blonde thought about it, he'd never saw her eat once period. Not for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. He stopped working on his weapon and checked the time. 20:42.

He shifted the weapon to its bow form and set it down next to him, before turning back to Penny.

"Hey Penny, aren't you hungry?" Jaune couldn't help himself from asking, tone curious as to why she wouldn't eat. The girl in question just shook her head before she answered him.

"Not to worry Partner, I am combat ready!" She answered with her usual exuberance. Jaune just stared at her before continuing the conversation.

"That's good, but it occurred to me just now that, I can't recall ever having seen you eat."

"What do you mean Jaune? I accompany you and our friends to the cafeteria every day." The ginger replied innocently.

"Yeah, I know. It's just…I can't recall ever having seen you actually eat food when you're with us." Jaune held a look of thought, and when he looked back to Penny, she seemed worried about something.

"A-ah. Well, uhm, you see, I just don't really eat too much. Which would explain why you've never caught me eating." She hiccuped. All the time he spent with his partner had taught him something about her. She didn't really understand the concept of personal space which could be cute and, though he would never admit it, secretly enjoyable, but it was also incredibly embarrassing. She loved hearing stories about places aside from Atlas and Mantle, which he knew stemmed from her never having left Solitas.

She spoke in a way that was unique to her, she loved to meet new people, she enjoyed practicing her piano skills, her favorite subject was philosophy oddly enough, and her favorite class was the combat course. Jaune knew almost everything there was to know about his partner, down to her favorite color. Which was green, not too dark of a green, or emerald green, but a brighter, more lively green, like a forest illuminated by sunlight.

But the one thing that he learned about his partner that helped him immediately, was her tell of when she was lying or not telling the whole truth. Her spontaneous hiccups.

The blonde looked her over as she put on a somewhat forced smile, and he decided to try and ease her fears. "Penny, just so you know, if something's bothering you, I'll always be here to talk to you. You aren't just my partner, you're my friend. My best friend." At this, the ginger haired girl's eyes widened at the words spoken by her partner.

A time passed and they sat in a somewhat stuffy silence before Penny decided to voice her thoughts to her blonde partner.

"Did you mean it. What you said. About me being your best friend…" She had shifted how she sat across the fire, now she peeked her eyes out from behind her knees, as she almost was curled into a ball. Jaune just let out a sigh along with a sincere smile.

"Of course I mean it Penny. I'd never lie to you, or any of our friends for that matter. That's why I came clean about my transcripts right off the bat, I wanted you and the others to know the truth about me. And if anyone was going to tell you, I wanted it to be me." The blonde's minor speech made his partner enter a state of thought as she mulled over Jaune's words.

Jaune sat across from his partner in silence, and after a few minutes passed, the ginger uncurled herself and moved to sit nearer to her partner on the other side of the fire. The blonde looked over at her and waited patiently for her to collect herself. She began speaking, albeit very hesitantly.

"Jaune, what are your thoughts on the faunus?" Penny probed for answers, though she also knew she was just stalling so she could keep her secret for a little while longer. Her partner just looked up at the sky and answered.

"I think there is a lot that's wrong in the world. They are persecuted, ridiculed, and treated as less than human. I really couldn't care less if someone was a faunus or not," As the blonde said this, Penny was a bit worried about his answer, his phrasing putting her slightly on edge. Though her fears were erased as he continued. "because to me, anyone I meet is a person. Human or faunus doesn't matter, we're all people, and we're all trying to find a place to belong or a purpose to achieve."

He looked back down to her, and any word's Penny had to say were lost as the girl viewed her partner. The shattered moon behind him cast an elegant light on him from above, and his deep blue eyes shone through the darkness of the night as he finished his monologue.

"It just seems dumb to treat others as less than each other based off what they look like, or what they are. Death comes for everyone, and all of us are equal before it. So why ever treat someone like anything less than how you yourself desire to be treated?" Jaune remembered the words about death, spoken to him by his former grandmother, smiling at one of many pieces of wisdom she'd imparted to him.

Penny sat in silence with the blonde, his words caused her to feel something she couldn't describe. Perhaps, admiration? She decided to contemplate them later, as she felt it was her turn to speak.

"…do you remember what I disclosed to you when you received your weapon? About how I have a secret." Jaune nodded before he responded.

"Of course. Are you secretly a faunus or something?" Penny just smiled sadly before she shook her head and looked to her partner.

"No…but I'm not human either." At this, Jaune look of curiosity shifted to one of confusion. She held her right hand out to the blonde, who took it in his silently. She rolled up the sleeve of her right arm and made sure her partner had a clear view as she pressed into a section of her forearm, causing it to slide up and reveal a complicated array of metal inner workings.

To his credit, Jaune didn't recoil as he saw the inner workings of her arm, though his eyes did widen. Penny sat silently for a few moments, before she gently began to move her arm, causing the blonde to let go, and closed the slide back before pulling her sleeve back into place. Once she was done, she looked over to her partner and waited to hear his thoughts.

"So…" Jaune paused, and Penny's face turned forlorn. But before she could begin to sulk, the blonde continued his thought.

"COOL!" At this, it was the ginger who recoiled back at the sudden energy that erupted from her friend. She blinked confusedly, before regaining her composure and confirming something.

"So…you aren't repulsed?" Jaune looked at her as if he'd been slapped, before he spoke back.

"What!? No, of course not! But I had no clue you we're a cyborg Penny, like I actually would have never guessed." He was smiling brightly and stood up to walk around her and look at her from different angles. She interrupted him with a clarification.

"Actually, I'm an android."

He looked confused, before he decided to ask the inevitable question. "What's the difference?" The ginger adopted a factual tone as she explained to him.

"Well to summarize, a cyborg is a combination of flesh and machine. Typically, a human who has had cybernetic implants integrated into their body. Like General Ironwood. I on the other hand, am an android." She paused, summoning the courage to finish speaking. "A machine made to look and act like a human." As she concluded her explanation, Jaune was looking at her with a hand to his chin in thought, processing the information he'd been given.

After a few moments of thinking, Penny decided to ask him the question plaguing her mind.

"Does this…change anything?" She looked to Jaune worried to here his response. The blonde just gave her a smile and a thumbs up before he answered her.

"Nope! I don't care what you are, you're still Penny to me. But now, I think I'm a little closer to learning everything there is to know about you." The blonde couldn't have known that his words would have such an effect on the girl, but her eyes widened, before her lips started to quiver as she held a face of gratitude towards Jaune.

The ginger and her dear friend sat next to each other, the fire keeping the boy warm as he began to bombard her with questions about her life and how she saw the world. Penny was all too happy to answer all his questions until the blonde found himself growing tired. Penny informed him that he should rest to regain energy for the trip they'd have to make tomorrow, and since she didn't require sleep, he could be fully rested.

The blonde felt the desire to argue, but the reassuring look from his partner convinced him to give in to his exhaustion. As he lay in his sleeping bag within his tent, the boy had an odd experience. It wasn't a nightmare, but he wasn't sure it was a dream either. He couldn't describe it; it was as if he was alone in a completely dark space, yet…he wasn't. He wasn't sure how, but he could feel it.

As he began to walk in a direction, he could hear...no, sense something behind him, and as he turned around, what before was a dark space, was now a blinding white. And as he stood between the two halves of the room, arrows began to appear all around him. Not weapons, but the arrows that could guide someone where they needed to go.

As the blonde approached one of the arrows, he reached his hand out towards it, but was suddenly shaken awake by his partner.

"Huh? Penny? What's going on, is everything okay?" The blonde asked groggily as he sat up in the tent. Penny who was sitting next to him nodded and informed him of why she'd woken him.

"Everything is perfect Partner, but I decided to wake you because the sunrise scan is going to occur soon." The blonde nodded and thanked her. As she exited the tent, Jaune sat there thinking for a time longer about his dream. He didn't know fully what to make of it but decided to contemplate over it another time. First, he and his partner had to find their friends, and pass their exam.

* * *

**(A/N)**

**Hey guys, so if this chapter seems a little bit shorter than usual, you are correct. I just felt that this was a pretty good place to stop this chapter. So, Penny told Jaune her secret, and Jaune seems to have had himself an interesting dream. Hmm.**

**Anyways, Next chapter, we'll see how another pair is holding up in the exam. Won't tell you exactly who, but I can tell you this, they are main characters for this story, and on the same squad.**

**Also, if you're reading on mobile, polls won't show for some reason. So if you're at all interested in the poll, just check out my bio for the story ideas, and let me know which stories you'd be interested in seeing me create, up to 3.**

**As always, I hope you enjoyed reading, and I'll be back once the next chapter is finished.**

**B.J.H**


	7. Chapter 7-Tribulations

**(Chapter 7)**

While Jaune and Penny were enjoying their time together, making the best out of their current predicament, another pair of students were trying to make the best out of their own situation. Unfortunately, it wasn't going to well.

"I'm telling you; we need to find our squad." An exasperated voice spoke out towards his companion.

"And I'm telling you; we have to get to the edge of Mantle and wait for them!" A growingly irritated voice countered with.

The two teens were beyond exhausted, and today wasn't going anything like what either of them was expecting.

* * *

Flynt Coal was tired. He'd woken up to cold air buffeting him through his blanket. After a quick assessment of his situation, he found that he missed the first location ping of the day, was seperated from his team, a far trip on foot from his goal, and had fourteen days for his team to pass or fail. Despite being away from his team with almost no way to find them, Flynt was most concerned with one thing above all, and that was finding Neon.

Luckily, having been close friends for years, they'd prepared for a scenario in which if they needed to find each other without normal means. Flynt took out his bracelet and from memory, turned his tracker on and off several times with delays between.

[F-L-Y-N-T]

Flynt was using Morse code to spell his name on the tracker's display, for all other students to see. Unfortunately, this was a long shot and he knew it. Since Morse code was a system of 'di and dah,' he needed a way to recreate that. What he decided on what that every time he activated the bracelet would stand for a 'di' and every second it was left on could stand for a 'dah'.

It was crude and another problem was that Neon would have to have her map activated while he was doing this and understand that he was trying to signal for her in the only way, albeit incredibly flawed, he possibly could. After repeating the process two more times, he waited for any type of response from the other pips of light.

After keeping the display activated for a few minutes, he was about to give up until a pip of light disappeared, and upon reappearing began to mimic the process of spelling out their name in Morse.

[N-E-O-N]

Flynt was elated and he knew what direction he needed to travel in. He turned off his bracelet and began moving in her direction. A few hours later, he heard a growl that was well known to the citizens of Solitas. He freed his trumpet from his holster slowly and turned to meet his enemy.

To his right, a sabyr stalked out from behind the treeline, pools of blood red fixated on the suave trumpeter. He began to move to the right, and the sabyr creeped to the left, keeping pace. Flynt stopped, as did the bone-masked monster. Eyeing each other down, the sabyr was the first to charge. With a roar and a leap, it made its first swipe towards the dark-skinned boy, who responded by stepping to the side. He did so with such a narrow window, that the sabyr seemed confused as to whether its opening move had landed.

It put space between itself and the teen, preparing for its next attack, but Flynt simply brought his hands to the correct placements of his instrument weapon, and took a deep breath. The sabyr decided to charge again, a mistake it wouldn't have the opportunity to repeat.

As it was airborne, Flynt shifted his fingers to the desired note, and blew out his stored air into the trumpet. The sabyr was engulfed in a red-tinted sound wave and let out a cry of anguish as it was slowly incinerated. The teen continued his musical assault until he saw his enemy cease its struggle and emitting the black mist that accompanied an injured grimm.

As he held his trumpet in his right hand, he reached down to his leg where he'd strapped the survival knife that was in his bag, and in one fluid motion after its release, plunged the knife into the head of the beast, just to the side of its mask. As it fully evaporated into nothingness, Flynt put the knife back into its holster and checked his tracker to reorient himself as to where his destination now was.

A good half hour after he'd resumed trekking through the forest, a twig snapped to his right. The teen's eyes darted to where he knew the noise came from and spotted a sabyr making itself known from its previous hiding place behind an incredibly large snow-covered tree. He freed his trumpet once again but heard more growls, causing him to glance around his position full circle, revealing that he was surrounded.

Flynt sighed before taking a lower stance and surveyed his surroundings. He was in a heavily wooded area with snow and ice covering the ground, surrounded by grimm, and he didn't have his team. He pushed up his glasses with his left hand and opted to take the initiative against his new opponents.

He gathered his breath before he turned away from the solitary sabyr that was previously in front of him and charged towards one of the smaller saber-toothed grimm while pulling out his knife once again, before plunging the blade deep into the neck of his stunned enemy. Knowing he'd created a window of opportunity; he pulled his knife out from neck of his enemy and used it as a steppingstone to spring behind the entirety of the pack.

As he turned to face the sabyr pack, he noticed that he couldn't find the largest one among them. Reasoning that it was likely waiting to ambush him when he least expected it, he knew that the most important matter at hand was to thin the number of things trying to kill him.

He glanced around at his surroundings again, hoping he might find something he could use to ease his workload. As Flynt glanced over his left, his eyes widened and he peeked back to where he saw something he thought he could use, a small pond. There was a sheet of ice over the surface of the water, but it wouldn't throw a wrench into the plan the dark-skinned teen was scheming. He heard the various growls and could tell that the sabyrs were probably about to attack again. He looked up and saw a variety of thicker branches hanging above him, sitting below a thick canopy of snow-covered leaves.

For the first time today since he found the direction his partner was in, he smiled before adjusting his glasses and speaking to himself.

"Showtime." And with that, he activated his semblance, summoning forth one of the three clones he could manifest at a time with a specific directive in mind. The sabyrs all began their charge, but as they closed in on the trumpeter and his doppelganger, Flynt reached his arm out towards his lookalike, and let himself be swung around and thrown by the arm up towards the tree limbs above.

As he reached the apex of his ascent, he shifted his balance in the air causing him to flip upright in time to land on one of the thicker branches. The dark-skinned teen's clone dematerialized before it returned to him, and upon seeing the confusion of the sabyrs below, let out a loud whistle.

Once the pack of grimm looked around for the origin of the sound, one of them was particularly unfortunate as it was hit with a small bit of liquid. Looking up to the high tree branches, they saw their prey. Flynt having finished emptying the spit valve on his trumpet, began to move on the tree limbs above towards the pond, making sure to check behind him every few moments to gauge the distance between himself and the grimm following below.

As he entered a bushier thicket of tree limbs, obscuring his enemies more thoroughly below, he put the next phase of his plan into motion. The moment he touched down on the branch he was jumping to, the teen summoned forth two clones. One of them kept travelling towards the same location he had been; the iced over pond. The other, however appeared to his right, and pulled him back to assist in abruptly halting his momentum, as well as prevent him from falling off the tree in doing so.

He and his clone listened from above as the sabyrs chased after his lookalike, and after a few seconds of letting his prey move past, begin to quietly stalk behind the pack. As he arrived as the pond, he saw that the sabyrs had all taken up positions to surround what they thought was the real him.

Flynt's doppelganger looked abnormally calm, if not a tad smug, as it stood atop the ice. The copy of the dark-skinned teen started to tap the literal thin ice it was standing on, and after a particularly resolute stomp, caused the ice to begin to crack around him. The pack of grimm was in the same situation as their prey, and while their weight barely caused the ice to crack, it would crack in warning any time one of the sabyrs would tense their muscles to prepare an attack.

Meanwhile roughly twenty-five meters away from the edge of the pond, Flynt and a clone watched patiently before sharing a look. They both nodded and began to set the next part of their plan in motion. The copy began to carefully hop across the tree branches to make his way to another edge of the clearing, and the genuine Flynt remained in position.

'Any second now, the moment one of them makes a move, we'll take them all out at once.' The dark-skinned teen thought to himself assuredly. Another few moments passed, feeling like a minor eternity for the huntsman student. In an instant, one of the grimm had chosen to lunge from its position, but in its recklessness and spontaneous movement, forced the ice it stood on to launch itself, to shatter and sink into the frigid waters below.

As the sabyr impacted the frozen pond surface a few meters away from the trumpeter, a single large crack formed from its position, before splitting off at every conceivable point into many smaller, spreading cracks. The standoff now broken; Flynt's clone waited anxiously for its moment to escape its surrounded position. The other sabyrs all began to prepare their own assaults as well, not having learned from the events having just taken place. The ice around their paws began to crack, and then suddenly they all pounced towards the boy stuck on the ice.

Flynt's lookalike smiled before lifting a leg up and proceeded to bring it down causing the ice to completely crack. As the sabyrs were in the air, the dark-skinned teen's doppelganger fell towards the water below, and Flynt allowed its form to return to him.

As the pack of grimm fell into the now uncovered pond, Flynt and the clone that had creeped across the branches moved with purpose and conviction. They both leaped from their concealed positions to the edges of the pond, before taking deep breaths and shifting their hands to the correct key of their trumpets. When they pushed their gathered air through the instrument, a blue soundwave was emitted and aimed towards the surface of the water.

The dust being used caused a sheet of ice to begin creeping across the top of the water, almost as if returning the pond to its former state. The irate sabyr pack tried to resist, but even the agitated water began to freeze over, and soon enough, they had been too.

Flynt and his clone stopped playing their trumpets, before admiring the almost work of art they'd created. The frozen bunch of sabyrs looked to be trying to escape the pond at all costs, creating an ice sculpture like picture out of what previously had considered him prey. His clone having strode over to him, shared a similar smirk, and after they both adjusted their glasses, Flynt and his clone went to bump fists, the lookalike phasing back into the trumpeter as their fists collided.

The teen didn't have time to relish in his accomplishment as he heard an alarmed voice call out to him.

"Behind you!" Flynt's eyes widened and he turned around rapidly to see a sabyr a few meters away prepared to take a swipe at him, he went to raise his trumpet to engage his enemy, but the sound of a gun cracked through the clearing followed by the dissipating form of his assailant. He holstered his trumpet before looking to the edge of the clearing the voice called from, where a figure was slowly strolling towards him. As the clearing illuminated his formerly hidden company, Flynt's eyes narrowed before he let loose an uncharacteristic sigh.

It seems as if Flynt wouldn't have to survive and forge a path back to Mantle on his own. Unfortunately for him, he was alone with Whitley Schnee.

* * *

The next hours of the trek the two were making had been rather uneventful, in the course of their travels, they had minimal encounters with grimm, and any that crossed their path were swiftly disposed of. But where conflict with the grimm lacked, conflict between the two had made home.

As they traveled, Flynt was uncharacteristically quiet, not to say that he spoke much, but Whitley knew the teen to some degree, and while he was calm and collected, he wasn't soft spoken or an introvert. People gravitated towards Flynt, and he always knew how to brighten up a room. But one thing Whitley noticed, was that none of the courtesies that the trumpeter of his sister team extended so readily seemed to extend to himself.

Flynt was never openly rude towards him, but he seemed disinterested in anything involving the white-haired teen. At most, they would share thoughts on battles, and be involved in general conversation. Beyond that, the two could hardly classify as friends. Currently, Flynt was walking slightly ahead of his squad mate, the hard-light display of his tracker showing him the positions of the other students who also had activated their trackers. What was confusing to the leader of team WICK, was why the trumpeter kept turning the tracker on and off.

Suddenly, Flynt stopped walking, causing Whitley to quicken his pace to stand next to him.

"Is something the matter?" The youngest Schnee inquired. He looked at the tracker display that Flynt was studying to see one of the lights turning itself on and off, and that his squad mate was devoting all his attention to watching that one light. Once it stopped shifting between on and off, having settled on off, the shades wearing teen let his eyes point towards Whitley, before looking back ahead of himself as he kept walking whilst finally answering his company.

"Nah…I was looking for Neon, gotta know what way I'm goin." His tone of voice was one of concern. But more immediately interesting to the white-haired teen was what he just implied.

"You…_know_ where your partner is?" The question was hesitant, probing, but it served its purpose as the teen in question smirked while pushing up his glasses and answering the Schnee.

"That's right, we came up with an idea for if we ever got nabbed when we were kids, so we learned morse code, never needed to use it when we were younger though. But lucky me, she was able to figure it out. I'm thinking I might just make her choice snack after the exam…" The older teen thought aloud, before he refocused on what he was doing currently.

"If I may be so bold Flynt, hold here for a moment." Whitley spoke out as he reached into the provided bag for his map of the area. Upon pulling it out, Flynt strode over lazily and watched quietly as the leader of his sister team seemed to do some planning and calculations. He even took out and activated his own tracking bracelet that had not seen use thus far. After a few minutes of silence, it was the trumpeter of team JCKP who broke the lack of conversation.

"Whatcha thinking there, Schnee." There it was again. The way Flynt said that just now. It seemed like his present company wanted an answer, yet…it didn't feel like the older teen was asking a question at all. It felt more like a statement, a jab at him for something beyond his knowledge. Whitley had been forced to sit quietly and observe through many of his father's meetings as he grew older, and as a result had picked up the ability to read a person well. He even considered himself a bit of a people person, though, in his context of the phrase.

So, two things were perplexing the Schnee; why did it seem as if Flynt resented him, and how had he never noticed it before? The second question was easy enough to answer, what with himself burning the midnight oil to improve, but more importantly, he knew it was because this was the first time it was exclusively the two of them alone. The 'why' though…that wasn't as easy a puzzle to solve. He realized he'd kept his squad mate waiting for an answer and replied swiftly.

"According to the map, we are approximately ten kilometers away from what seems to be the end of the forest, and another two kilometers from what I can only infer is an extensive slope." The white-haired teen accentuated his explanation by gesturing to certain spots of the map, the trumpeter giving a brief exhale of air or grunt as the only acknowledgement shown towards Whitley. After he was done showing Flynt what how he was thinking, he put forth what he had in mind.

"I'm thinking we should start setting up camp," As he said this, the white-haired teen redeposited the map back into his bag before facing Flynt and continuing, "we covered a significant distance from both of our respective starting points, and in addition, were fortunate enough to stumble into each other on the first day. However, sunlight is retreating fast over the horizon and if we don't make use of the time left, we'll be setting up camp in the dark with virtually no cover."

His dark-skinned companion put a hand to his chin in thought silently, mulling over the words of the youngest Schnee. A few minutes later, and Flynt put a hand to his neck as he strained it to the side gently, earning a satisfying crack. A groan of tension having been relieved, he just shrugged his shoulders before responding to Whitley.

"Aight, I hear you. So, where do you propose we shack up for the night; right here?" Whitley looked around, and as he was faced away from the trumpeter, let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding before beginning to think aloud.

"Well…No matter where we set up camp in the vicinity, it seems like we are going to have a copious number of blind spots surrounding us. Maybe…" Before Whitley could let himself mumble about possible courses of action, Flynt cleared his throat and caught the attention of Whitley before speaking.

"How about up there?" Whitley looked overhead to see the tall trees standing resolute all around with sturdy, wide limbs and thick bodies. Cover from above due to the canopy the treetops created and elevated from the bottom, the white-haired teen saw this as a perfect locale to stop and prepare for nightfall at. If they could keep their emotions in check, they might even be virtually invisible to any grimm that weren't already at their height.

"A sound idea indeed Flynt, let us proceed with your proposal then." Whitley focused his aura and used his semblance to make a few platforms for each of them to use to scale their trees quickly and efficiently. As he scaled his tree, he looked back down to see the darker skinned teen hesitant to use his glyphs but gave a sigh and proceeded to ascend the tree similarly to how Whitley had done a few seconds prior.

Both of them now safely above ground, they began to settle into their temporary abode. Whitley watched from the corner of his eye as Flynt activated his bracelet once more, and while he wanted to request that he refrain from potentially drawing the attention of grimm, the white-haired teen also understood that he was worried about his friend, and that he would check for her regardless of his personal feelings.

As Flynt began to communicate in code with his teammate, Whitley started to unpack his equipment to try and make his place of reprieve feel a tad more comfortable. The branch he sat on with his pack and gear was rather wide and accommodating for the lone Schnee, also pleasant, it dipped slightly down, creating a dip in its structure that was fitting to lay in.

He looked at the area around him but saw no suitable place to affix his lantern securely, so he rotated the chamber of his revolver the ice dust vial was staring down the barrel and activated his semblance. A glyph later and a shard of ice impaled the tree limb he was resting on, and after he removed the shard, placed the lantern into the appropriately fitted hole that was left behind. Lastly, Whitley unrolled his provided sleeping bag and let it rest perfectly in the tree's dip and nodded at his own resourcefulness.

A few minutes later, the white-haired teen was eating some of his rations with his legs hanging off the edge of the tree limb. Flynt let out a minor sound of relief and turned off his bracelet before turning to face towards Whitley with his own rations in hand. The two sat a few feet across from each other eating in silence from their respective trees, and once they each finished their meals, Whitley started to speak.

"Flynt…I was thinking that tomorrow we should adjust our course and head towards Mantle." The trumpeter tilted his head to face Whitley with a look that spoke volumes. He wasn't on board with the idea, at all. Quickly, the youngest of the Schnee family resumed speaking as he felt the quiet emotion behind the look Flynt was giving him.

"I'm not saying we can't meet up with her along the way, but we should realign ourselves more towards Mantle for now. It will save us a few extra days of travel time on our trip, and you can still rendezvous with your partner. It just will take a few extra days, but-"

"No." The stern voice of Flynt was something seldom heard, but when it was present, other voices quieted. The dark-skinned teen gave Whitley a look that said the matter wasn't up for debate, and after staring the teen down for a short time, looked off into the distance, trying to leave behind the presence of his current company.

And as the younger teen began to collect his thoughts to negotiate with Flynt, the following argument was something neither teen hoped for, but received nonetheless.

* * *

Two hours later and the two teens were still arguing in the trees above the ground. More than once, they had to put their squabble on hold and return to the ground to dispatch grimm that had been drawn to the area by the increasingly negative emotions being exuded by the two.

Frustration rolled off Whitley in waves now but was matched by the resentment Flynt held towards the Schnee family, as well as the desperation he held towards to finding his partner.

"I'm telling you; we need to find our squad." The exasperated voice of Flynt spoke out towards his companion.

"And I'm telling you; we have to get to the edge of Mantle and wait for them!" A growingly irritated Whitley countered with.

No progress towards a compromise had been made or thought about as both huntsmen-in-training were steadfast in their stances on the matter. A silence followed as both the teens refused to speak or look towards the other, a chance to catch their breath and pause from their heated debate.

Whitley was the first to continue their discussion. "Okay, I've tolerated this long enough," He earned the attention of the trumpeter as he spoke again. "Flynt, what is your problem," As the darker-skinned teen was about to respond, Whitley cut him off. "With me, Specifically?"

At this, Flynt recoiled slightly, not having expected a question so direct and away from what they were previously arguing over. He looked to Whitley and saw narrowed eyes and pursed lips. He was normally able to contain his feelings when around the younger teen, but without Neon around to take his mind away from the Schnee, the trumpeter could only try to contain his emotions.

Seeing as how Whitley figured out that he had something against him, something personal, Flynt decided to lay his cards out on the table to his squad mate.

"You really wanna know?" A nod of the head from the white-haired teen, and Flynt let out a sigh before looking to his company, his eyebrows came closer and his mouth shifted to something akin to a sneer. This was a face he'd never seen the trumpeter make before, one of true resentment.

"It's because you're a _Schnee._ Your family has ruined the lives of countless people across Remnant and benefitted from it in the process." The emotion present in the teen's voice shocked Whitley, it spoke of anger and sadness, and the young Schnee couldn't help but listen as Flynt continued to speak.

"My family was no exception either. We lost almost everything because of the S.D.C." Whitley was silent as he listened trying to figure out what his family's company could have done to cause his squad mate so much grief. As the darker teen was silent, Whitley thought about the trumpeter of team JCKP to try and understand what could make him feel this way.

Whitley thought about if he may have ever met the teen, but discarded the possibility swiftly, maybe something to do with Neon? Had she or her family worked in the primarily faunus manned dust mines owned by the S.D.C? But even so, why would he resent Whitley for something like that. Whitley continued to comb through his knowledge to solve the puzzle that lay in front of him.

'Let's see, my other theories don't add up to what I'm feeling…what else do I know…He uses dust as well, a type of dust we've never manufactured. If I recall correctly, sonic dust was made…" And suddenly it all clicked to the younger teen.

"Coal Dust Industries." It was whispered out by Whitley, but with the icy silence of forest not providing any ambient noises, it may as well have been said clearly at room volume. Flynt's eyes found their way to Whitley, who sat across him with something akin to uncertainty.

"Flynt…you have my apolo-"

"Don't." The even voice of the trumpeter sliced through Whitley's words with a heavy weight. As the white-haired teen sat in silence, he waited for Flynt to speak what was on his mind.

"I don't need your pity. I don't want your pity. You asked me why I resent the S.D.C. so much? Its because what your family did to mine, changed our lives. My parents went from thinking about buying or building a nicer house up in Atlas, to looking for a cheaper house than what we had in Mantle. But here's the thing,"

"I could forgive having to find a cheaper house in Mantle, if we didn't…I wouldn't have met Neon. I could forgive having to learn street smarts because they helped me to develop schemes. I could forgive that my mom had to go back to being a huntress who was always away from home on missions." He looked towards Whitley with a tired, forlorn look on his face before he spoke again.

"The one thing that I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive, was how your dad robbed my pops of his dream. My mom told me stories about how all he wanted to do when they were my age, was to own a little shop that could grow into a business that everyone knew the name of. She told me about how he took his ideas for artificial dust compounds, and how he became an upstart in the business world."

Flynt looked down to the trumpet that was a gift from his father for when he'd been accepted into a preparatory school for huntsmen and continued.

"My trumpet uses sonic dust to make those sound waves. It's perfect for my trumpet because I can amplify those waves with other types of dust. My pops had a ton of other ideas for artificial types of dust, even made other types. But then, the S.D.C. muscled him out of the dust business, and tried to buy the ideas for his dust so they could make it themselves."

Flynt looked up to the treetops above the branch he sat on and spoke finished saying what he had on his chest with a heavy heart.

"My old man was devastated. Mom was never home because she was on missions, and eventually dad sold most of his patents so that we could live semi comfortably. He was just…broken for a while. He worked day in and day out to build the beginning of his dream company, only for it to be taken from him."

Whitley could only let his head hang down in shame of what his family had done to his squad mate's. 'If this is what we did to one company, how many others did Father…" His thoughts were interrupted by Flynt who had leaned against his tree somewhat reserved and before beginning to play a sad tune softly on his trumpet looked to Whitley and spoke out.

"Imma take first watch."

As the white-haired teen listened to his companion play softly, he wormed his way into his sleeping bag and rolled over to face away from Flynt and thought to himself about what he learned from the teen.

'So much for trying to be friends.'

* * *

**(A/N)**

**Hey guys, know this is a few days late, and for that I'm sorry. Took a bit longer to write because I've had a bunch of spring cleaning to do since we're all stuck at home.**

**Hopefully you are all staying safe and healthy.**

**Also, thank everyone for reading, reviewing, and voting in my poll! So far, we've had more than Fifty voters give me their input. Anyways, I'm keeping this note short so I can start writing the next chapter immediately.**

**One last thing, the new cover art is a picture I had drawn of Jaune and Penny by that artist friend of mine.**

**B.J.H.**


	8. Chapter 8-Beacon's Black Knight

**(Chapter 8)**

**(Vale, Beacon Academy)**

"For our final match of the day, Pyrrha Nikos will be facing…" The neutral, analytical voice of Glynda Goodwitch cut across the silence that blanketed the room used for combat class. She held a clipboard and scanned over the names of students that she could pit against the promising leader of PRVN. She continued to contemplate potential foes for her before her eyes found a student who hadn't had a chance to participate recently for personal reasons.

"Cardin Winchester." With that, the headmistress sat at her desk with her eyes closed as she took the chance to rest graciously. Both Pyrrha and Cardin made their way to the appropriate locker rooms to prepare themselves for their bout, but what was odd was the smirk that Cardin wore. Ten minutes later, and Pyrrha was the first to return from the locker room, clad in her Spartan armor with her weapons in hand.

The cheering from the student populace when she would enter the ring to fight in class was somewhat bittersweet to her though. While she prided herself on her strength and how she wielded it, she did wish to be treated the same as everyone else but knowing that others admired her strength was a bit of an equalizer, however.

She looked up to where her team and team RWBY were seated and gave them a small smile as she could hear Ruby cheering.

"You got this Pyrrha!" The high-pitched voice of the red reaper called out to her fellow team leader. The young Rose looked over to her teammates and tried encouraging them to cheer for their Spartan friend.

"I almost feel bad for Cardin though," the voice of Yang spoke out, garnering the attention of her friends, "he doesn't stand a chance against P-money." Weiss scoffed from where she was seated as she spoke with a noticeable disdain in her voice.

"Ugh, don't even Yang. If you should feel bad for anyone, feel bad for Pyrrha. She has to waste her time and energy in combat with _him_ of all people." To her side, Blake decided to add her input.

"He is…different though. Did you guys notice?" As she said this, all the eyes of her friends were on her. She received affirmative nods of the head. How could they not notice, it was a mere rumor at first, but one day in the lunchroom, Cardin shocked everyone present by sitting with a faunus student, the very species he was known to terrorize, and being friendly with him. She asked a question to no one in particular, thinking aloud. "I wonder what caused such a change."

The ever-bubbly Nora decided to cut into the conversation, stealing all focus for her own thoughts.

"Who cares! Our Fierce Leader is gonna win this no problem!" As she said this the sound of doors opening could be heard, announcing the return of the ginger-haired mace wielder. As the steps got louder, the faces of the students shifted to expressions of confusion and curiosity as they began to whisper among themselves.

"Well, that's new." The slightly intrigued voice of Vernal spoke out, causing Nora, Ren and team RWBY to look at her, then to where she was looking, their eyes widening as they did so. Glynda had opened her eyes to prepare to start the match and had to pause to observe the tall leader of team CRDL while Pyrrha studied her opposition.

His old armor had been replaced by more streamlined equipment, though it kept its knightly look. His chest plate seemed more compact and form fitting, but still seemed strong enough to repel mighty blows, the protection on his arms had changed as well. Now, his left arm was adorned with a gauntlet that covered him to the elbow, and on his right arm, an upper arm guard with an elbow guard and a vambrace.

His lower body was still protected in the same areas as before but was updated to accompany his new armor set. The color scheme also fitted the tall teen well, his armor's color now a warm shade of black, matching the clothes he wore under well, and the accents to the armor changed from a mystic gold to a sunset orange, matching his hair. Finally, the sash he wore around his waist had changed from a blood red to the same shade of blue as his eyes.

Everyone, regardless of their stance on the reformed bully, could say that his new equipment suited him well. But their focus was more on his weapon, which caused Ruby to shake in excitement at the opportunity to admire a new weapon. His mace still had the dust crystal in the center of the crown, but now the shaft of the weapon was no longer a plain pole.

Now, it had horizontal lines along the shaft, showing that it had been changed to accommodate some form of new feature, but the lower end of the weapon was what drew attention. The lower half of the weapon seemed to sheath into the upper half, and the handle of the mace now resemble the stock and handle of some form of firearm.

The room began to fill with murmurs, before Glynda stood from her seated position with interest, and approached the center edge of the combat ring.

"Settle down everyone," she turned her gaze towards Cardin as she spoke again. "Mr. Winchester, am I right to assume that this is why you had requested a formal pardon from participation in combat classes?"

Cardin looked over to her with a confident spark, devoid of any traces of smugness, in his eyes as he said nothing but nodded his head towards her. The change in attitude from the young man was nothing short of staggering, yet incredibly welcome to all the Beacon Academy populace.

Glynda pushed up her glasses as she nodded to him, before looking to Pyrrha who nodded back, before she raised her hand in the air as the two took on their combat stances. Pyrrha studied him from behind her shield with her javelin held firmly to the side and her front foot forwards. Cardin adopted a completely different stance than what the Amazon teen had been expecting, with his body standing sideways and facing his opponent with legs bent, his non-dominant arm out in front of him as if to guard himself, and his weapon held towards the ground behind him. After a moment of dead silence hung in the air, Mrs. Goodwitch swung her hand down and gave the command.

"Begin-" No sooner than she finished the second syllable of the starting key, both students sprang into action. Pyrrha shifted her javelin to its rifle form and prepared to fire at the Winchester heir, but her eyes, as well as the eyes of all present, widened when the dust crystal in his mace caused an explosion behind him, causing him to propel himself in the direction of his enemy, not too unlike one of the top combatants in the class.

As he flew towards her, she took aim and began to fire at Cardin, but it was all for naught as the non-dominant arm he kept ahead of him showed that the gauntlet was for more than looks, as it deployed a shield to protect him in his descent. Realizing she held her position far too long, the red head dove out of the way of the falling ginger's attack, looking back to be greeted with a small crater from the impact.

Cardin stood up from the landing zone he'd created and locked eyes with his enemy as he smiled, and Pyrrha's lips formed a thin line as she reevaluated her foe. While the Mistralian teen was by no means a slacker in class, having exceptional grades in all her studies, she did tend to ignore the matches that would occur normally in combat class if they didn't involve her or her friends. So, it came as an unwelcome change that a student she considered to be below her level was able to surprise her.

"Well, at least the change he made wasn't just for show." Vernal quipped to her teammates and their friends, who watched the fight with a newfound interest.

Pyrrha shifted Miló into its xiphos form and prepared herself for the engagement with Cardin. In response, he collapsed the gauntlet's shield back into its hidden state, and held his mace with his left-hand, near the crown of the weapon. For a moment, the air seemed to still, neither willing to make the first move, before Cardin took the initiative as he twisted and pulled the handle of his weapon away from the upper half of the weapon. In the ginger's right hand was a short single-barrel shotgun.

Pyrrha seeing that he wanted to have a ranged battle, sought to deny him his wishes and charged forwards. She expected the taller teen to recoil and stumble out of surprise, instead, he responded by charging back towards her. When they came within weapon's reach of each other, the spartan girl saw Cardin's left arm curl around himself, preparing to swing the upper portion of the mace at her, but remembering that he had his ranged weapon in hand as well, read his feint and raised her shield to block her torso, just as a barrage of projectiles impacted Akoúo̱.

She tried to jump back and create space between her and the relentless knight but was unable to make any comfortable breathing space to plot as Cardin chased after her, firing off his new weapon. She felt her aura protect her and knew that the ginger had managed to steal away 'first blood', so in a show of acrobatics, she leaped into the air shifting herself as she did so, along with her weapon. As she was falling back to the arena floor, the teen hadn't expected her sudden change in tactics, and was met with three impactful bullets from Pyrrha's rifle.

The two both allowed breathing room as they checked their scrolls, both of their auras in the light green. Cardin's armor had taken the brunt of the damage from her bullets, leaving light scuff marks on the armor from the attack. The two of them stared down for another moment, before a mutual narrowing of the eyes occurred between them. The leader of team PRVN shifted her weapon back to its javelin form before rushing to reengage the taller teen, who had reconnected his weapons to have his mace prepared.

Despite having been on the offense for much of the match thus far, Cardin hadn't forgotten that Pyrrha wasn't called the 'Invincible Girl' for nothing. As the exchange of blows commenced, Cardin was now forced to put all his energy into defending against the onslaught that the Argosian girl was bringing to the table.

Minutes passed and the only sounds were those being created from the clashing of weapon against weapon and the grunts of effort both teens were creating. When they separated, Cardin's control of the match had begun to slip, and they both knew it. He was more exhausted than she was, the scarlet-headed teen only being slightly out of breath. Peeking down at his aura gauge, the ginger saw that he was now in the yellow, and his opponent was just barely in green-yellow territory. However, the one thing that stood out most to him was her face, and how it was devoid of its perpetual smile.

In its place, a firm look of…irritation? No, dissatisfaction would be more accurate. Cardin realized that she was dissatisfied with how the match had progressed thus far. His old self would have charged in recklessly and ultimately led himself to his defeat, but after the many rigorous training sessions with team CFVY, he'd bettered himself to a point where he could be proud in his progress and embarrassed at his previous ineptitude.

That wasn't to say that before he began his process of bettering himself, he was a bad combatant. In fact, his team ranked third in combat classes, and individually, Cardin has held the ninth rank in class since the beginning of the year. It was simply a fact that team CRDL was a step above most of their grade. It was also blatantly obvious that the leader of CRDL was a step above his teammates. But the one thing that everyone knew, was that teams RWBY and PRVN were a few steps above everyone. So, it was more than a slight wakeup call when the match began, with Pyrrha Nikos of all people, being put on the defensive.

Right now, Cardin had a low, firm stance and had his shield deployed once more. Looking to his opponent, he began to think about the possible routes he could take to secure his win. His new fighting style was controlled and efficient, words that didn't fit in the same sentence as Cardin Winchester, but training with the disciplined and experienced members of Velvet's team had driven any form of recklessness away from him.

Pyrrha's combat style on the other hand was something more, almost to the point where it could be called a way of life. Refined, convicted, skillful, and fluid. He recognized that she had the ability to have ended this fight earlier, but thankfully for him, she'd allowed herself to be caught off guard expecting the ginger to fall into his old patterns.

So far, he'd used most of his new tricks, only having two last cards up his sleeve from his new repertoire, but Cardin was far from unarmed. While Pyrrha's style was graceful, it was also incredibly straight forward. She never feinted her moves, never tried to be tricky, her ability to outsmart her opponents was all pure combat skill.

The leader of team CRDL however, had no qualms about using whatever he could in order to win. While he may have abandoned his bullying ways and arrogant nature, he still had his cunning mind, and his ability to get under his opponents' skin.

"Hey, Pyrrha!" The loud voice of Cardin rung throughout the room from where he stood across from her, causing her to drop her stance slightly in confusion. Cardin too had abandoned his stance, opting to straighten his back and stand with his mace hefted onto his shoulder as he eyed her?

"Yes?" The now curious voice of the scarlet haired hoplite responded to him. He wore a light smirk as he began to walk around the ring slowly, his steps measured as he began.

"What's it like being the leader of team JNPR? Whoops! I mean, PRVN?" Her eyes narrowed at him, as did the eyes of Nora and Ren. They saw what he was doing, but that didn't do anything to stop him from continuing.

"I mean, I'd say I feel for you," He stopped walking to glance at her with that damned smirk of his before he continued taking his steps.

"But I don't." Her lips pursed, and she kept him in her sight, she couldn't afford to let him distract her like he was trying to.

"Really though, Valkyrie and Ren don't operate well with others. Guess three's a crowd huh? Oh. But you have four people on your team. There's those two, your replacement, and then what you are."

As he said this, Pyrrha couldn't help but let the words slip out of her mouth. "And what would that be, Cardin."

His smirk turned into a full-blown Cheshire grin as he answered her.

"You? You're just a wannabe Jaune." Pyrrha grit her teeth as the grip on her weapon tightened impossibly so. Hearing his name brought many different emotions upon the Spartan teen, but she could barely contain herself at being compared to _him_. From their seats, Ren wore a displeased frown, and Nora was glaring daggers into the tall teen.

Vernal however, was studying Cardin with her trademark cocky smile present. If there was one thing Raven Branwen had taught the tan girl, it was that there were no rules in the real world. Having been involved in raids on frontier settlements and villages, Vernal could respect someone who had no qualms about fighting to win, whatever it takes. But what brought out her grin, was how a classmate she wrote off as unskilled and unimportant, was clearly getting under little Ms. Perfect's skin.

Cardin fought with tricks, but right now he was fighting mean.

From the side, Glynda Goodwitch remained silent as time went on. She pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation as the scene before her unfolded, and in a manner that she feared wouldn't be optimal. In the ring, Cardin didn't relent with his words, digging deeper into a wound that had clearly not finished healing yet.

"But I guess I started this all off with the wrong question. Here, lemme try again. What's it like knowing you'll never be as good a leader as Jaune?" A low blow to be certain, his opponent's eyes were shadowed by her hair. In the stands, the Schnee heiress held a look of disgust while Yang's clenched her fists. Ruby just sat worriedly, and slightly sad at the reminder of her first friend at Beacon.

Cardin returned to where he stood when he first began taunting his opponent and went for the coup de grace.

"Alright, alright. This isn't getting us anywhere, so I'll stop wasting both of our time. Last question…" Everyone waited for him to continue as they eyed Pyrrha, and after a moment of suspense, spoke again.

"What hurt more: Selling out your leader or realizing that you were in lov-" Cardin wasn't allowed to finish, as the huntress-in-training dashed at him with a snarl almost faster than he could react.

He looked up and locked eyes with her, his shield pushing against her shield in a contest of power, but unlike before, anger was Pyrrha's energy now, and there was plenty of it.

Previously, Cardin was on the defensive. Now, the tall ginger was on the retreat, trying to evade the Mistralian teen at all costs. She was in hot pursuit of her target, who had been dodging her attacks with fervor, and had a look of silent, scalding fury. Her seemingly ever-present smile and friendly nature abandoned in favor of a never before seen, teeth baring frown. Her combat had changed as well. Before, she could be seen as graceful, controlled, and fluid, now she swung and lunged with the sole desire to defeat Cardin.

Minutes went by with the tall ginger doing his best to defend against Pyrrha's wrath, and slowly beginning to lose the lead he had secured from the beginning of the match, having taken a few glancing blows and the occasional strike. As the Spartan teen disengaged, likely to maneuver her weapon into its rifle form, Cardin allowed himself to quickly steal a peek at his aura gauge and found himself furrowing his eyebrows. He was in the yellow orange, and his opponent's aura hadn't shifted much.

As Pyrrha began to fire at him again, Cardin raised his shield to protect him from her shots and prepare himself for her to rush him again. After a few moments, a shot was fired that would've hit him in square between the eyes. He instinctively raised his shield to protect him, but when he lowered his shield enough to see over the top rim of the shield, he was greeted with the sight of his opponent speeding towards him.

'I don't want to lose anymore.'

It was a thought that made Cardin grimace. His opponent had taken the advantage from him, and he couldn't capitalize on her compromised emotional outrage like he'd hoped, but he still had a card up his sleeve. All he had to do was find the chance to use it. Time seemed to almost slow for Cardin as he remembered his talks with Jaune and all the things the blonde had told him about his former teammates.

"_Pyrrha is…incredible, and I hate to admit that, but she really is. She has a high amount of aura, an unfair semblance, and can fight from any distance masterfully."_

As the ginger thought about the match up to this point, as well as previous matches, he couldn't help but agree.

"_But. She does have a few things that could __**theoretically **__be used against her. If you can get her off her balance, physically or mentally, you __**must**__ capitalize on that. While your upgrades will throw her off initially, you won't have that advantage long, and the same trick won't work on her twice. Your best bet is your trash talk, I guarantee it."_

Well, Jaune wasn't wrong in that regard, he'd definitely offset his opponent from her normal stature. He was good at fighting mean and fighting dirty. The problem was that he was so good at it, now he was hard pressed to defend against her.

"_If you say some stuff about me, her team or her friends, your bound to get some reaction. I don't know what to expect from her if you manage to throw her off with some well-placed insults but be ready for things to get heated. Another thing, you can't wait for an opening against Pyrrha, you have to make one for yourself."_

Cardin waited until the hoplite teen was only a few meters away, before he collapsed his shield and shouted out.

"Professor Goodwitch!" As he called out, Pyrrha's face shifted to one of confusion and indignation as she halted her advance and turned to face the assistant headmistress. Glynda looked confused too, and as she looked between the two combatants, her eyes suddenly widened at what was about to transpire.

As she was waiting for the older blonde woman to say something, her instincts screamed at her, causing her to look back to where her opponent. The tall ginger was within striking range and was already swinging his mace towards her. The leader of team PRVN was beginning to raise her shield to guard, knowing that she would be able to block the attack.

She was proven wrong when the tall ginger made the dust crystal in his mace fire off an explosion to accelerate the speed and power of his swing, in addition to the aura the ginger had been using to augment his physical abilities. It impacted her side with crushing force, sending her airborne towards the edge of the ring nearest to the audience of students.

Angry that her opponent had used such a tactic, and angrier that it had worked, she saw she was about to lose by a ring-out. After she put up her shield to guard her body in case the taller teen decided to fire at her with his shotgun, she closed her eyes to focus her aura in order to activate her semblance, her aim to manipulate her armor back to the ground in the ring. Cardin's eyes widened as he realized this was his moment to use his last trick, if he didn't make the most out of this opportunity, he doubted there would be another.

As he reared his arm back in preparation of a swing, the audience waited to see what was going to happen next. As he looked to his falling enemy, he thought back to a conversation he had with the leader of team CFVY.

* * *

**(Flashback, A Week Ago)**

"Hey! Red Bird! We need to have words."

The commanding voice of Coco Adel called out to her ginger haired underclassmen as she walked into the gym. The tall teen let his eyes flicker over to her from where he was doing squats with a fair amount of weight on the bar. He finished the last four reps in his set and replaced the bar to its resting place. Cardin was covered in sweat and panting from his daily workout routine, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the shorter girl holding a bottle of water towards him.

He reached out to take it, but she pulled her hand back as his hand got close. When he looked back to her to meet her eyes, he saw that whatever she wanted was serious. He caught his breath and nodded to her, and she returned the gesture, handing the beverage to him. As he uncapped it and began to greedily suck down its contents, he noticed they were alone in the gym.

He sat down on the bench and looked up to where Coco was standing across from him.

"Alright, so what do we need to talk about?" He was truly curious, and she looked as if she was evaluating him.

"I'm going to be blunt, do you got a thing for Velvet?"

Cardin felt as if he was suddenly under the microscope, which wasn't uncommon when he was the focus of Coco's attention. He took a minute to think about his answer, although it was one he already knew. He let out a sigh as he leaned back on the bench and looked up at the ceiling and started to talk.

"Yea, I like her." Coco was about to ask him why, but Cardin continued to speak, so she kept waited to hear what was on his mind and in his heart.

"I like her quite a bit actually. She's…everything I'm not. She's brave, she's kind, she knows how to fight. She was willing to forgive me for being an asshole. What's not to like?"

He looked back to the beret wearing girl and waited to hear what she had to say, which wasn't long. The girl released a sigh of her own and began to rub her neck as she spoke her mind.

"Listen…if it were anyone else, I'd tell them to take a hike. But you? You don't half ass it when you train with my team, you dropped the whole bullying schtick, and you're able to make Velvet smile." At this, Cardin was getting hopeful of what Coco thought.

"But!" The tall ginger became alarmed and waited for the fashionista to continue.

"Can you protect her? Velvet is _strong_, you know it, but not as well as I do. She doesn't need protecting, but can you protect her if she needs it, and fight besides her, even if things look bad?"

There was no hint of amusement coming from the older girl as she bore her eyes into Cardin's, making him feel as if his soul was under inspection.

"I will." She stayed silent for a moment after his response, before she adjusted her glasses. She crossed her arms and spoke again.

"What happens if your enemy is stronger than you, what then?"

"Then I'll get stronger."

At this Coco cracked a small smile, before erupting into full blown laughter, thoroughly throwing off the taller teen. She composed herself as she spoke again.

"Cliché, but good answer. Thing is though," She leaned in to show meet his eyes again. "Can you prove it?"

Cardin stood up from the bench, and from his height towering over his upperclassmen, he delivered his response.

"What do I have to do?" The older girl thought for a moment before she poked him in the chest and proceeded to give him a monumental task.

"Jaune's old teammate, the two-faced red head. She's pretty strong, so beat her." At this Cardin was taken aback. Being given an objective like that was unexpected. He didn't let doubt creep into his mind as he steeled his nerves and answered the leader of team CFVY.

"I'll do it." He believed it too and the conviction he spoke with made Coco believe it as well.

She turned away from him and spoke out to him as she moved to leave the gym.

"Don't take too long to keep that promise. It's not nice to keep a lady waiting. And when you beat that Spartan bitch, here's a piece of advice for when you make your move on Velvet." She turned back to him and gave him a reassuring smirk.

"She's a sucker for cliché romance. Flowers, chocolate, chivalry, the whole deal."

As she left, she called out one last time to the reformed bully.

"If you disappoint her Red Bird, Gianduja and I are gonna give you lead poisoning!" And with that, she was gone, and the weight on the ginger's shoulders felt both lessened and all the heavier at the same time, but he wore his hopeful smile with a new optimism.

* * *

**(End Flashback)**

Cardin didn't just want to win, he needed to win. He wanted to talk to Velvet, and lay it all on the table, but before that, he had to win.

He hit a button with his middle finger from where he held the mace at the handle, causing the lines adorning the shaft of his mace to extend and decompress with a hiss. Up in the stands, Ruby studied the weapon as Cardin prepared his attack, and realized the danger her fellow leader and friend was in.

"Pyrrha might be in trouble…" At this, her team as well as Pyrrha's looked to her with confusion. Down in the arena, the leader of team CRDL took a step forward and began his swing.

"Cardin's weapon isn't a mace that transforms into something else." As the knightly teen swung, the crown of the mace was now sailing through the air, still attached to the handle, but snaking further than what anyone expected.

"It's a flail that turns into a mace." Pyrrha opened her eyes and used her semblance to move her armor, and thus her, back towards the arena, where Cardin had predicted she would go. She looked to her left and saw the crown of the ginger's now apparent flail approaching her fast from her left. She wasn't expecting this, but since she had already begun using her semblance, aimed her weapon wielding hand towards it and tried to halt its momentum.

She was shocked however when it kept approaching, showing that her semblance did nothing to influence it. She instinctively began to move her arm to guard with her shield, but it was too late. The crown of the flail impacted her heavily on her side, dropping her aura again as well as disrupting her hold over her semblance.

Suddenly, the crystal in the mace regained its brilliant red glow, and Cardin unleashed one last explosion that sent the Amazon girl shooting to the ground below, sending up a wave of dust.

Cardin looked over to his opponent and saw her getting back up to her feet, though she seemed…shorter? He looked down and saw why before he checked the screen above the ring, eyes widening before he shifted his flail back into its mace form, and held it over his shoulder, proceeding to walk away towards the locker rooms, the crowd of students in the stands of desks silent at what they had witnessed.

Pyrrha looked to her opponent in disbelief, before she prepared to charge at him for daring to dismiss her. But before she could, she was halted by the voice of Glynda Goodwitch.

"The match is over!" With that, the adrenaline flowing through the huntress-in-training began to slow down, before she put her weapons onto her back to gather her breath and prepare a smile for her friends.

"Cardin Winchester wins by ring out!" And she froze. The students were silent. Professor Goodwitch stared at her before she sighed and began her breakdown of the match on the screen for the students to see. As she talked, her voice started to drown out in Pyrrha's head as she stood still in the ring, eyes wide in disbelief at her newest loss. The assistant headmistress's advice to the girl going unheard as she began to walk slowly to the female locker rooms.

From their seats, the members of teams RWBY and PRVN sat in silence, mouths agape at what had unfolded before them, except for one. Vernal eyed the retreating form of the tall ginger with curiosity and caution. This fight shouldn't have gone down like it did. The ginger came with a new arsenal that he shouldn't have had the time to test and train with and knew how to pick apart Pyrrha like Grimm would a carcass. The tan girl decided to keep on her guard around him, as clearly, there was more to him than meets the eye.

"Mr. Winchester." As his name was called, he stopped in his tracks and turned to face the older blonde woman, and as he did, she was surprised to see a joyful smile on the young man's face, devoid of any hint of arrogance.

"Yes Headmistress?" At his response, she pushed up her glasses before she spoke again.

"Since you have new weapons at your disposal, you'll need to register them now."

The teen looked at her in surprise, evident that he forgot he would need to state the weapons to her now and did so with pride in front of the class.

"Right! I did kinda forget about that. The shotgun is The Judge, the shield/gauntlet is The Jury, and my mace is The Executioner. They're made of a special type of beryllium copper, that has zero traces of ferrous metal incorporated into it."

At this, Glynda nodded, thinking to herself about how she would later be showing the combat footage to Ozpin. But for now, she dismissed both of her students, and watched as they retreated to the locker rooms before dismissing her class a slight bit earlier than usual.

* * *

A few hours later, and it was about eight p.m. Cardin was in his signature black slacks and button down standing outside of Team CVFY's dorm room. He checked his breath, his hair, and calmed his nerves, hiding his hands behind his back after he knocked on the door.

A few moments later, and he was greeted by Coco. Upon seeing him, she went out into the hall with him to talk.

"So~ I hear that a certain underclassman of mine pulled off the biggest upset of the year today. That true?"

He smiled to her and revealed what he had hidden behind his back; a single flower and a decorative box that she recognized from one of the more expensive bakeries in Vale.

"You really must have wanted this huh?" She met his eyes before nodding at him.

"Alright, do what you came to do then Red Bird." She moved out of the way, before a though struck her, and she halted the teen.

"Actually, head up the roof, I'll tell her to meet you up there." He looked confused, but before he could ask anything, Coco spoke once more.

"Do you trust me?" At this he nodded his head. And so, she pointed towards the stairway, and he looked at her for a moment, before nodding again and making his way up. Pausing before reentering her team's dorm room, she looked to Velvet and spoke to her.

"Hey bun, you got someone who wants to talk to you." Velvet looked up from where she was fiddling with the projector of Anesidora in surprise.

"Really? Are they outside?" Coco shook her head as she replied.

"No, they asked me to tell you to meet them on the roof." At this, Velvet thought for a brief second, before nodding and standing up from her seat. As she went to grab her camera, Coco stopped her.

"Hey, since you're gonna be up there, is it okay if I use your camera to take some selfies?" Velvet looked at her confused as she responded.

"Why don't you just use your scroll?" Coco answered her faunus teammate in a rather factual manner.

"Because Anesidora makes my scroll's pictures look terrible. Please? I promise I'll only take a few." Velvet debated it for a moment before agreeing and making her way to the hallway to get to the roof. Coco smiled mischievously and grabbed the camera before sneakily making her way up to the roof.

A few minutes later, and the door to the roof opened, and she was surprised to see Cardin standing there waiting for her arms behind his back and the shattered moon bathing him in a radiant glow as she approached him.

"Cardin? Were you the one who called me up here?" Cardin took a deep breath while he wore his nervous smile and responded.

"Yea Velv…I uh, I wanted to talk to you about some stuff…" Seeing that he looked worried about something, she took a step closer and spoke again.

"If something is on your mind Cardin, you can tell me."

"I plan to." He tried to find a place to start, and after a minute, let out an exhausted sigh as he motioned for Velvet to stand next to him and admire the view. She stood next to him, her hair slightly flowing in the evening breeze as the moon illuminated her too.

They stood in silence for a few minutes, and Cardin turned to face her as he began.

"When we first met, I was beyond unkind. I said and did unforgivable things, yet somehow, you forgave me anyway. You even let me be your friend. And for that, I can't thank you enough." She smiled at what he was saying, and he thought he could spot a faint blush dusting her cheeks.

"Cardin…you don't have to be sorry about that anymore." He looked sheepish, and he picked up his end of the conversation.

"I know…but what I'm getting at, or uh, what I'm trying to say is…" he looked as if he didn't know how to proceed as he started to fumble over his words. From her position hidden behind the door to the stairwell, cracked open ever so barely, Coco was silently rooting for the knightly teen.

He seemed to calm himself before he finally prepared to say what he wanted to say. He presented the items he had hidden behind his back to the girl who looked at them in surprise as he spoke.

"I know I'm blessed to have you as a friend Velvet, but I'd like to see if maybe…you'd be interested in trying to be more than just friends with me." She stared at him with her mouth slightly open and eyes wide. He was about to start apologizing for possibly making her uncomfortable, before a pair of slender arms wrapped themselves around his chest, causing him to stand silent. He looked down to the rabbit faunus who had buried her head into his chest as she spoke to him.

"…It's about time. You know, you shouldn't keep a lady waiting dummy."

He hugged her back with a relieved smile, and they stood their enjoying each other's company, oblivious to the pictures being taken of them in their moment alone, or the smile that their mutual friend wore.

* * *

**(A/N)**

**Hey Guys,**

**I am so sorry this took so long, I kept rewriting this chapter over and over, because I wasn't sure where I wanted to pick up, or who I wanted us all to see the story progress from. For some reason, I couldn't stop thinking about Cardin and Velvet. So I decided to show how things were going on over at Beacon. **

**It was kinda hard to write fight scenes, I feel like I'll get better as I write more but, you know.**

**Also, I added a few more ideas to the poll that weren't there before, and I'll probably add maybe two or three more before leaving it to be for a time.**

**By the way, do you guys think I should maybe make a small discord channel so that I can keep you updated on progress as well as discuss things with you all? The story isn't the most viewed one by any means, but I think it would be cool to talk to you all as I write or game. Since I have a kinda meh laptop to game on, I usually game on PS4. But I do play Valorant, LoL, Stardew Valley, and a few others.**

**Food for thought I suppose.**

**One last thing! I wasn't really sure how to describe the from mace to flail. I feel like it was adequate but if anyone else has a better way to describe that change, I'd like to know so I can possibly reword how I did it in this chapter.**

**Hope you enjoy reading, and I'll see you all with the next one!**

**B.J.H.**


	9. Chapter 9-Reckless

**Somewhat important Author's Note at the end of the chapter, hopefully will answer some questions.**

**Chapter 9**

**(Miles Outside Mantle, Day 2)**

The night hadn't been much of a respite for Whitley or Flynt. Back and forth bickering led to a revelation that the youngest of the Schnee family hadn't expected. Their shifts for sleep hadn't been optimal either, with the two consistently having to leave the relative safety of their treetop camp to exterminate grimm.

When morning finally came, the two teens sluggishly packed up their camp, and after surveying of the area around them, dropped down the ground below. Flynt took out his tracker and moved away from Whitley, no doubt to communicate with his longtime friend. The youngest Schnee took a moment to appreciate scenery he'd only seen in paintings, pictures, and documentaries, as he waited for his companion.

A few minutes later and Flynt returned, still looking groggy, but a tad refreshed after exchanging messages with Neon. As they took a slow pace in the direction of the slope, the white-haired boy debated how to try and persuade the trumpeter to alter his course.

"Ahem, Fly-"

"Lemme stop you right there." The older teen interrupted as he kept his eyes ahead of him, talking strong steps with purpose. "We have around 12 K left to hoof it, then we can go ahead and split up once we get to that slope." The way Flynt said it conveyed that the end of their shared travel couldn't come sooner, but Whitley was more perturbed by his squad mate's declaration.

"Split up!? My pardon, but you can't be serious." The youngest Schnee looked to the trumpeter with a newly founded alertness shooting throughout his being. The darker teen turned to Whitley and simply adjusted his glasses before he looked back to the path forwards and continued his march.

"And why not? You and I ain't gonna to do anything but draw grimm with the negativity between us, and we have a bigger problem: our conflict of interest." He spoke factually, able to be polite despite the contempt he held for his company's family as he continued.

"You want to adjust our course and change our pace to get to Mantle, to safety, as quick as possible, and I get that. But for me? Finding Neon, finding my team. That, comes first above all." As he finished speaking, he fiddled with the valves of his trumpet to check his weapon instrument's dust levels, satisfied to find he would almost assuredly have enough for his unplanned stay in the frozen wilds.

Whitley's patience had run thin long ago but couldn't find it in himself to muster any anger towards his companion after having learned of his past, causing him to almost implore Flynt to acquiesce to his proposal.

"Flynt, I don't want to leave my team, or my squad," As he said this, the white-haired teen let a pause hang in the air before he spoke again. "alone in grimm territory. But, I also have faith in my partner's, my teammates', and my squad mates' abilities to safely traverse the wilderness, return to Mantle, and pass this blasted exam."

This caused the older teen to stop before turning to look at Whitley with an unreadable expression and his full attention. Not a word was spoken between them. Then, the trumpeter took off his shades to clean them for a moment and spoke to his companion.

"Not gonna lie Schnee, I wasn't expecting that…but I have faith in all of us too," He paused his response to examine his sunglasses before he returned them to their resting place in front of his eyes. As he was doing this, Whitley looked at him confused with a question dancing on his lips.

"Then why don't y-"

"but, I also know that if I find them, that I'll be able to fight my hardest, _knowing_ that they are right there besides me. I can't fight at my best not knowing how my team is doing. I trust them, they trust me, and while I know that any one of us could make it to Mantle alone, I don't want to wait for them at the finish line, I want to make it there with them."

As he said his piece, he turned back to the path that lead to his friend, to Neon, conviction unwavering. Walking behind him, silent and in thought about how he had decided to approach the exam, Whitley thought hard about what Flynt said to him.

Two and a half hours later, the two students were marching up a hill, until they finally reached the peak. From their elevated position they were able to view for a few miles in each direction. They both knew that they'd reached the slope. Flynt pulled out his tracker to send a message to Neon and waited patiently for a few minutes for a response. Whitley sent a downcast look to his squad mate, before taking out his map to gauge what path he should take to avoid unnecessary danger or detours, since he would be proceeding solo.

He heard repetitive footsteps to his side and turned back to where the trumpeter had been standing patiently, only to see the darker skinned teen pacing quickly while gnawing on his thumbnail, anxiously observing the tracker's display.

"Flynt? Is everything o-" Whitley began, only to be cut off by a worried Flynt.

"She's not responding." The sunglasses wearing teen had already tried re-sending his coded message, but still no change. From the side, the younger teen tried to reassure his company.

"I'm sure she's fine Flynt, she's likely just preoccupied with something on her end." He said it tiredly, but in his best effort to give the trumpeter some form of comfort, to whom it didn't go unnoticed and, not that he would ever admit, unappreciated.

Suddenly, a light began to flicker on and off on the screen, prompting both teens to turn their attention to the screen.

The light blinked three times. 'S'

The light stayed for three seconds. 'O'

The light blinked three more times. 'S'

The light disappeared from the display.

Whitley had never seen a look of anything but confidence or positivity from the darker teen, prior to look of resentment that was still burned into his mind from last night. But the look Flynt wore now was all wrong, he was the man who could make any bad feelings evaporate. But the horrified, frantic, worried grimace he wore spoke volumes. In an instant, Flynt scanned the area around them, ignoring the questioning calls from Whitley, before he spied a hollowed tree laying in the snow.

He summoned his trio of clones to assist him in dragging the hollowed tree to the edge of the slope before he hopped inside. He cast off and used his clones to help him maneuver while one of them propelled them faster down the long slope by playing the trumpet weapon behind them.

As Flynt barreled off in a makeshift toboggan, Whitley stood dumbfounded, and knew that whatever the message had said, caused the normally suave teen to panic. He looked to the direction of Mantle, knowing that it would easier, safer, and justified for him to continue doing what would keep him alive and would likely help him to pass.

So, he had absolutely no idea why he instead took off in the direction that the trumpeter of team JCKP did just moments ago.

* * *

"So Partner, what is your favorite color?"

"Hmm, white." Jaune answered after a momentary pause. Penny nodded her head before she continued asking him a wide array of question as she had been for the past hour and a half.

"I see, and what about your skill with the guitar? You play so well; did someone teach you?"

The blonde's eyes shifted to a faraway look as he continued walking with his android partner. His tone changed as well, something that hadn't escaped the ginger teen as she walked besides him through the valley.

"Well…when I was younger, my former family really didn't want me to follow in my father's footsteps and becoming a huntsman. So, they tried enrolling me in all types of activities to try and take my mind away from being a warrior or maybe find some hidden talent I had with anything that didn't have to do with fighting."

Penny felt slightly guilty about making her partner relive some unpleasant memories, but before she could begin apologizing, Jaune's face shifted to one of someone who was recalling something pleasant as he resumed speaking.

"But when they had me learn an instrument, the guitar, and stuck me in musical lessons, it cemented my dream to be a huntsman. My guitar teacher was a huntsman when he was younger, and whenever we had our lessons, he would reward me with stories from his huntsman days. Eventually he told me and my family that he would be leaving Ansel soon, so I had a lot more sessions with him than I usually did."

Jaune smiled as he stopped and looked up to the sky for a moment before he fell back into pace walking, Penny in-step with him at every moment, and a smile on her face mirroring her partner's as she listened to him speak.

"So, on the last day he was in town, after our lesson he told me two things; one of them was what I needed to hear, the other was what I wanted to hear."

Penny, who had been listening intently, enraptured by the tale of the man who'd managed to make such a mark on her best friend, asked the obvious question. "What did he tell you Friend Jaune?"

Jaune smiled as he held up a finger and responded with words he'd been told once. "The life of a huntsman is dangerous kid, and quite a bit rests on your shoulders. There will be times when you're hurt and wanna lay down, but you can't. You have to get up and keep fighting. And if you go down again? Get back up."

It was a grim sentiment, but it was not untrue. Penny nodded to the blonde as he held up his second finger and spoke again.

"But I've never seen anyone as determined as you. Just a boy, but so cocksure in what, no, who you want to be. If you have an idea that you genuinely think is good, don't let some idiot talk you out of it. Jaune." At this he paused and pointed directly at his android partner as he recalled the final words his teacher said to him.

"You can be a huntsman." Penny started to clap energetically, wide smile in place. Jaune rubbed his neck slightly from having been so caught up in the moment, but before he could begin to feel embarrassed, Penny had already moved on to the next topic as they continued their walk. The leader of team JCKP just chuckled as they continued their trek towards Mantle.

The next few hours had been uneventful save for the conversation between the two huntsman students, not having run into more than a handful of grimm due to the positivity flowing from the two. The taller teen and his companion both had their trackers activated to see if they were ever near any of the other students, but to this point, hadn't spotted any of the other students.

By the time they'd reached the bottle-necked opening of the valley they'd been traversing, the two of them had already received their fill of appreciating nature's beauty, and instead opted to continue the long march home.

"So partner, you were saying earlier that you have some ideas to increase our team's combat efficiency. Would you be willing to share some of them with me?" The curious voice of Penny cut through the silence of the forest as Jaune nodded to her with a thinking look.

"Well for starters, I want to make some formations for us. That way, any time we end up in a fight, we can just fall into some basic formations and from there I can give out orders where they're needed." The former Arc replied, earning a nod from his partner.

"That sounds like a well thought idea Partner! Would you already happen to have some formations in mind?" At this, Jaune nodded and was about to go in depth explaining some of them, before a blinking light on the edges of their trackers caught their attention. They both focused on the blinking light, and saw it flickering on and off.

"Hey Penny, you think that there's something wrong with that that person's tracker?" From besides him, his partner made a thinking face before she answered.

"Unlikely Friend Jaune, the technology in these trackers is quite reliable and well maintained. However, it seems like there is some sort of pattern to the light's flickering." The blonde leader immediately gave his attention to the display before he asked him partner to point out the pattern to him if the light began to flicker again.

A few moments passed before the same light began to flicker again. Jaune watched the display as Penny pointed out the pattern to him, and he thought intensely for a few moments before a possibility dawned on him.

"Penny, what if this is some sort of code?" The ginger to his side's eyes widened, not having considered the possibility of the flickering being a form of communication.

"If your speculation is true Partner, then that would mean that the most likely form of code they're using is Morse." Before they could begin to try and decode the message, a second flickering light appeared on the display. They watched the second light flicker three times, settle for three seconds, and flicker three more times before disappearing, followed by the light that initially caught their attention.

"Partner Jaune, if I'm interpreting the message correctly, then…" she trailed off with a worried tone.

"What is it Penny?" The girl in question took a moment to be sure of her answer before she responded to her leader.

"Then it was most likely a distress call." She answered finally, causing Jaune to take a deep breath to compose himself. As he was about to speak however, his shorter ginger partner spoke again, her words causing him to freeze in place.

"I also have reason to believe that Friend Neon was the one requesting help." Jaune looked back to her and spoke worriedly.

"Are you certain?" Jaune's words were quiet, but they spoke volumes. From her place standing next to him, Penny nodded with a grimm expression on her face.

"There is almost a hundred percent likelihood that Friend Neon sent the message, as the other blinking light was specifically messaging to her, by name." She finished as she began to run a diagnostic on herself and Floating Array.

"Probably Flynt." The tall blonde looked to his android partner and after receiving a nod from her, began to think of the best course of action.

"Penny, you wouldn't happen to have any idea how far away we are from them, or how far they are from each other…would you?"

She nodded to her organic partner and responded. "We are roughly 40 kilometres away from where I project our teammates will intersect, and they are," She paused as if to study something before she spoke again. "15 kilometres away and closing fast on each other." Penny motioned for Jaune to follow her in the direction they were needed, as they began to run in the direction of their friends.

The blonde stared at her for a moment with a curious expression as they moved, causing her to shyly rub her forearm as she explained how she was privy to that knowledge.

"…I may have interfaced with the technology in my tracker so that I could try and locate you faster once the exam began."

"Wait a minute. Whatever knocked us out so they could put us out here for this exam shouldn't have affected you, right?"

Penny jumped to maneuver over a large fallen tree as she answered with a matter of fact tone. "Well, I can 'smell' like you can, but that function is more to identify possible poisons or air pollutants so that the appropriate safety measure can be reached. However, they wouldn't affect me, as you suspected."

Jaune nodded to her as she explained, filing away this knowledge mentally in the event that its use was required in the future. Having paused to give her best friend a chance to process what he was told, Penny spoke again.

"I was scheduled for a full self-diagnostic, which takes several hours, the night we were all moved. When I awoke, I was without you, Neon, or Flynt. After reading the note, I determined that it wouldn't be against the rules, so I bypassed the security in the tracker and obtained access to the main functions and subroutines. From there, all that was left to do was find everyone else."

"…You're really something Penny. Don't ever change." The ginger in question smiled brightly as she saluted her team captain. Her face shifted to a more serious look as she spoke to her partner again.

"Partner. If Neon is in trouble, I can get there fast enough to assist, but…" She trailed off uncertainly, looking off into the distance.

"But…?"

She looked back to her friend as she finished voicing her line of thought. "You wouldn't be able to accompany me." She looked conflicted, as did her partner, but she quickly explained her reasoning.

"Not that I don't want you to accompany me! But to get there in time to help, I would need to move at my top speed. We are a bit over 24 miles away from Neon, and I could get to her in less than an hour, but you wouldn't be able to keep up with me." She finished as she stopped moving and shifted into a sprinter's stance.

"Hold on there, Partner." Jaune's 'leader voice', as dubbed by the rainbow faunus of team JCKP, caught the ginger's attention as she looked to her leader, who adopted a look of deep thought.

'If Penny is moving as fast as she's making it sound like she will, then I wouldn't be able to do anything besides slow her down. Think Jaune, how are you gonna cover that much distance fast enough.' He was interrupted from his thoughts by the gentle voice of his partner.

"Jaune…they need help. Every second we spend doing nothing puts them further at risk."

Jaune's grip on his weapon tightened. No matter how hard he thought, he couldn't think of a way to travel fast enough to assist his team. His grip slacked, and just as he was about to give the go-ahead for Penny to run towards Neon, he had a thought.

It was crazy, dangerous, desperate. But it just might work, and that was all he needed. He looked over to his partner and gave her a command that confused her.

"Throw me." The shorter girl stared at Jaune for a moment as if he'd grown a second head before she responded.

"You want me to…_throw_ you, in the direction that Neon and Flynt are?" To his credit, the blonde didn't exactly think this was a good idea per se, but given the situation, it was his only, and therefore the best, idea that he had.

"It's the only way I'd be able to catch up to you guys in time to help out. If you throw me before running towards Neon and Flynt, I can use my weapon's umbrella form to travel towards all of you. And I can give you some aerial guidance since the tracker has a radio that works up to 10 kilometers." His partner looked uncertain still as she voiced her thoughts to her organic friend.

"I see…while this theoretically could work, wouldn't you use a good deal of your gravity dust to make this possible?"

The tall blonde shrugged his shoulders as he answered his partner.

"I really only use gravity dust when I'm airborne, so I don't think this will cause any major issues. Besides, most of my gravity dust in exchange for being able to meet up with my team sounds like a good trade."

Penny smiled at her partner's words before she relented and grabbed hold of Jaune's hands.

"Jaune, the force that I'm going to throw you with will be rather significant. Please reinforce at least the upper half of your body with your aura to prevent any major damage."

His skills in protecting himself with his aura had come a long way from when he didn't have it to begin with. He may not be completely efficient with it yet, but he was steadily improving. As his upper body glowed, he sent a nod towards the ginger android, and she nodded back.

Slowly she began to spin her partner around, progressively speeding up until they were a blur, before suddenly she released him in the direction of the rest of team JCKP. She watched for a moment to make sure he was okay as he became a spec in the sky. She shifted back into a runner's stance with her head held low to focus. After a few seconds, her head snapped up and her eyes glowed before she took off, leaving a dust cloud behind her as she moved.

* * *

Neon considered herself to be rather fortunate.

From having met Flynt when she was young, to getting accepted into Atlas a few years back, the years had been pleasant with more ups than downs. And even despite a few close calls here and there, she still had all nine of her lives left.

But as she was running through the frozen tundra helping Ivori carry an injured Kobalt through the snow, she was wondering if maybe her luck had run out. Behind them, Ciel had her revolvers trained on their pursuer, an injured, but no less hostile and tenacious, sphinx.

Its right eye was leaking black mist, its left wing had been clipped, and various mist seeping scratches and cracks littered its body and bone armor.

The scratches and cracks were a courtesy of Ivori and Neon respectively, and the clipped wing was delivered by Kobalt, but had promptly earned him a savage blow from the sphinx, turning to mule kick the falling blue-clad teen. To buy her team time, Ciel had gone from a more guerrilla style of fighting, to a last stand type of shooting.

She quickly put herself between her squad mates and their enemy, and would fire rapidly whenever the sphinx would attempt to close the distance she was keeping to retaliate, which had resulted the bone armored monstrosity taking a lucky shot directly to its eye, causing it to approach them more carefully. However, Ciel knew that her stalling tactic would only last for so long.

They needed help, and while she could only hope her Flynt and Whitley were really going to come assist them, things weren't looking good from the timely girl's perspective.

* * *

**(A/N)**

**Hey guys,**

**I'm still alive and very much so invested in this story, and somehow in good health. Work and the online course I'm taking online for college, (since they were so damn cheap), have been taking up a great deal of time.**

**Also, while this story has been mostly spontaneous, recently I have been thinking ahead for moments and scenes I want to write in, like the moment we are all waiting for, the reunion, the dance, the Vytal, etc.**

**Since this whole trial by fire was rather spontaneous as a matter of fact, writing through it was rather odd. A lot of things got written, a lot of things got deleted, a lot of things got re-written; it was a process that was enlightening to say the least.**

**So I feel that with this chapter being so damned short, I should probably go ahead and let you all know now. This will not be the new normal chapter size. I'm only using this short chapter size for this one and maybe the next 3-4 chapters, which will conclude the midterm exam arc.**

**Also, if you all don't like the short size of this chapter, I'll keep this one up and update it when I've finished writing what would be the next chapter, and just figure out how to transition to that, so that you have a normal sized chapter.**

**Honestly, writing _consistently_ is difficult. I get distracted by quite a lot, but! I will not let that deter me from working on this story and making it something special.**

**One last thing before I close this out; I feel I should probably somewhat dissect Jaune and Penny's approach to the conflict in this chapter. In theory, robotic muscles can be up to 1000x stronger than a human's. Remembering how Penny yanked down an airborne bullhead trying to escape with floating array like it was no big deal, including aura and possibly dust enhancements, I feel like it would be possible for her to swing Jaune at an angle high enough, with enough velocity, for him to get there eventually with the use of his own method included.**

**On the Jaune side of things, I think he could survive this. In the official animation, in the fight against Cordovin, Jaune ran towards Nora to save her from the attack coming from the mech. The very, Very, incredibly large mech. On top of getting hit with all that mass, he was running towards the attack, which, while not enough to significantly change the force of the attack, still would make it a tad worse. Aura is crazy.**

**Anyways, thanks for reading this if you did, and if you didn't, thank you anyways, I'll try and think of a way to keep you all updated with the progress of new chapters.**

**DM me if you have any questions!**

**B.J.H.**


	10. Chapter 10-Friends

**(Chapter 10)**

'Every second counts.'

The motto Ciel Soleil embodied. Even without her trademark watch, she could tell the time at any given point of the day. In one word, some might describe her as disciplined, and this was certainly accurate, but a better word that encapsulates who she is would be punctual.

As her friends tried to put ground between them and the large Grimm, she stalled their pursuer with well placed shots, movements, and distractions. The only problem was that this engagement had drawn itself out far longer than she was comfortable with.

She usually carried a considerable amount of ammunition on her person for if it was needed, but had already run through roughly a fifth of the dust rounds that had been left to her for the exam. More alarming however, was the black and white monster ahead of her.

It was beginning to learn.

It was certainly a Grimm that had been around for a few years at least, but had made some dangerous mistakes in its haste, causing it harm. Now though it would still overextend in its attempts to kill, it was slowly correcting itself. At first, it was a suspicion with no base, but when it tried to rush the girl during her reload, she knew it was beginning to understand things.

That made it dangerous.

It was becoming patient, changing tactics to force Ciel to fire whenever it would attempt to bypass her to pursue her squad mates. A slightly terrifying possibility simmered in the dark-skinned girl's mind. Could it be…_counting_ her shots? Trying to understand when it would be safe to move in for the kill?

No. Grimm weren't that intelligent; they couldn't be.

She took a breath to cleanse her mind. Fear, sadness, doubt, desperation. They brought the creatures of Grimm. Right now, despite how bleak the situation appeared, she needed to have faith. Faith that Kobalt would be alright, that their friends would make it in time to assist them, that they would make it out of this. Together.

Like clockwork, she continued to use step-backs and defensive shots in an effort to keep the beast at bay. A quick glance behind her saw that her friends had put a small chunk of distance between her and them. Knowing that to keep pace she would have to stop dueling the sphinx, Ciel improvised a plan that would give her the time she required to catch up to defend her squad mates.

As the Grimm approached her yet again, instead of retreating, she quickly stepped towards it, catching it in a moment of surprise. As it flinched, the dark-skinned girl stowed one of her revolvers onto the back of her hip, before bringing her empty hand to the top of the gun she held in her right hand and fanning the hammer at close range.

The attack wasn't as accurate as one would've expected from the girl, but it served its purpose, as a loud roar of pain filled the tundra's snowy terrain. She turned and began to run towards her friends only for her instincts to compel her to suddenly roll forwards, feeling an immense heat behind her as she did.

She turned to see the snake-headed tail of the sphinx hissing at her from its new position coiled around the body of the sphinx, and a scorch mark on the ground where she'd been moments before. Her eyes met what had once been the eyes of the sphinx to be greeted with both of its eye sockets leaking black mist, and its mouth exhaling smoke from its previous attack.

A glance behind her again had shown that her friends were gradually approaching where they could, hopefully, expect to rendezvous with Flynt and/or Whitley. But as she prepared to resume her duel with the Grimm, she remembered her supply count with a grimace. She had to be hopeful. For her friends, for her.

So, she began to fire at the sphinx again to hold the line for as long as she needed to.

Thankfully, she heard a crackle of static from the device provided to all students for the exam, signifying that they were almost in comms range.

* * *

Whitley had all too quickly lost sight of his former company as Flynt sped down the long hill to expedite his travel to where his lifelong friend needed him. However, as he raced in the direction of his squad mates, his shoe caught an unseen tree root, causing him to lose his footing and fall forwards.

As he pushed himself up from the snow, he cursed his haste, but was unable to calm himself. When he reached his feet, all was quiet around him. He closed his eyes and focused only on his breathing. Seconds ticked by, and eventually he opened his eyes.

'The only way I'm going to arrive in time to help is if I can either come up with something Jaune would do or pull _that _off now.'

He shivered at some of the plans his blonde squad mate had concocted in their many, many training duels during combat class, and could only wonder what reckless, daredevil idea he would employ in this situation. But he wasn't Jaune, he was Whitley Schnee.

He focused his aura in front of him and began to use his semblance. As a light formed in front of him, he began to remember his life before his recent enrollment into the Atlas academy. His eldest sister relinquishing her heir status to escape their dysfunctional family. Weiss abandoning him to go and study at Beacon. His suffering, sorrow-stricken mother who drowned herself in alcohol. And his father.

The glyph that had tried to form shattered and he felt a pain in his chest. It lasted only a moment, but it was enough to bring him to his knees with his forehead pressed to the snow.

But before he could despair, images began to flood his mind. Memories of his time at the academy. The time he spent with his team, and the occasional outing with team JCKP. Ivori's use of nicknames and his attempts to rope him into pranks. Kobalt's willingness to coach him in physical training to further develop his muscles. Ciel's encouragement over the past months that helped him keep looking forwards.

A small bit of his aura left him as a glow appeared in front of him, going unnoticed by him as the pain in his chest began to shift to a slowly warming feeling. He remembered the first prank he was ever subjected to, at the hands of Neon. The scarce laugh that escaped him whenever Penny would fluster Jaune. And finally, the duels he had with his blonde friend, and how they would smile as they sparred.

A breath hit his head, and he lurched back in a moment of fright at what had crept up on him, only to be in awe of what he saw. Standing in front of his was the same sabyr that he'd killed the day prior during its sneak attack on Flynt; only now, it was a snow-white color, and below it, a crackling static Schnee family summoning glyph.

It approached him, and gently bit down on his sleeve before gently moving back, pulling the young teen to his feet. Whitley marveled at his newfound power, before he remembered what he needed to do. With no hesitation, he mounted the sabyr's back before he gave a mental command to take him in the direction of his friends. An exhale of ice later, and the tamer and summon duo took off, Whitley's tracker now activated to track the locations of his squad mates.

The warm feeling in his chest didn't leave though, and neither did the thoughts of his friends. He clutched a hand over his heart. He liked it.

And he would protect it.

* * *

Thousands of feet high up in the air, Jaune was accelerating in the direction that his squad mates were in using his weapon's umbrella form. Down below, he watched the dust cloud that was his partner blaze a trail towards their squad. Minutes ago, she had informed him that she would be increasing her speed, which would leave him a bit behind.

He gave her the go-ahead and she did exactly as she conveyed, moving quicker than what had already been an unbelievable pace. As he flew in the direction that he was needed, his mind began to wander, and he wondered what his friends at Beacon were doing during his exam.

Was team CFVY doing alright? Did Cardin and the rest of CRDL ever hash things out? His former friends invaded his mind for the briefest of seconds, but just as quickly as their intrusion came, he pushed it away, instead remembering the conversations he had with CVFY and Cardin about the Vytal Tournament.

**(Flashback-September)**

Jaune knew of the semblances of team CFVY and their weapons, so he could only nod his head in affirmation of the slightly taller boy's assessment. He was closing on the training center, its entrance no further than another hundred meters away, before a thought struck him like a lightning bolt followed by an alarming devilish grin.

"Hey Cardin, I have an idea. Do you think you could talk to team CFVY about it and get them on board?" Cardin could hear the smile on the blonde's face, but was confused as to what was going on in his friend's head.

"I mean, I can try. But what are you thinking?"

"Velvet is the key to whether this is gonna work or not. And another thing, does anyone know that you and team CFVY are cool?"

"I mean, people know they don't wanna kill me, but I don't think anyone would say that we're friends if they were asked." The blonde nodded with his grin ever present as he responded.

"Perfect. Here's what I'm thinking: If you could get Coco and her team to 'train' with team RWBY and PRVN, Velvet could film their training. Her excuse could be that she's recording their data so that they could do a post training review. When in reality…"

"They'd be recording it so that you could go over it with your team and come up with counters." The ginger let out a whistle at Jaune's scheme.

"That's pretty savage there J.B. Didn't know you had it in you," He paused before smiling and continuing to speak. "but I approve."

Jaune rolled his eyes as he responded to the smug tone his friend had.

"You would." With that the two shared a laugh.

**(Present)**

Jaune was broken from his reminiscing by a loud cry from behind him. Twisting so that he could view what was at his rear, his eyes widened as he was met with the sight of a flock of avian Grimm. They were rather peculiar as well, and he remembered them from his Grimm studies at Atlas.

At the head of the flock was the leader, if the size different was anything to go by. In addition to its two glowing red eyes, the leader had a third eye on its forehead, this one complete with a pupil. It had bone armor that covered it at its head, the top of its wings, and the front of its legs. What resembled a ribcage and spine protected its torso. The rest of the flock all looked identical save for size and the third eye, though.

These owl Grimm were strix, and the leader, alarmingly, was an elder. What made them dangerous were two things in particular. One, they were fairly sneaky all things considered, as they could fly silently. Two, when an elder is present, the elder can control any lesser strix nearby; sharing their sight and dictating their actions. This wasn't factoring in the sharp claws and beak, as well as the stiff tail feathers it could launch as projectiles.

As they flew to approach him, Jaune realized the imminent danger he was in. His bad idea had put him thousands of feet in the air and was now about to get attacked. But, as far as bad ideas go, it was infinitely better than what he just came up with. As they got progressively closer and closer, the blonde put his new plan into action.

He changed the direction of his acceleration and was suddenly helping to close the distance between him and the flock of avain Grimm. However, he _really_ didn't want to do what he was about to do. Too bad he didn't have time to think of anything else.

* * *

Ciel and company's situation had become more precarious. As they retreated from the large abomination, they looked ahead and saw that they were unfortunately coming up on a large cliff face.

They spotted an opening in the rock face; a cave. Hopefully it wasn't the home to a deathstalker, but there weren't any other options in this scenario. She turned back to engage the sphinx in a final stand as she unholstered both of her revolvers. Neon saw what the punctual girl was preparing for and looked to Ivori.

"Ivy, let me take Kobalt to the cave! I can get there quicker if I use my semblance to carry him. Once I get him in there and he's safe, I'll come back to help you two." Ivory looked to his brother before he took his weapon into his hand and rushed towards his teammate to assist in killing the Grimm.

Neon slung an arm of the larger teen over her shoulder before she looked towards his pained face. "Hey big guy, I'm gonna get you to cover so I can help fight. So hold on, cause we're gonna go pretty fast for a few seconds, alright?" The blue clad fighter just nodded to her, and after Neon took a moment to gather her aura, the two took off as Neon was running through the snow carrying Kobalt.

Within moments the two were bathed in the darkness of the cave. Neon took out one of her dust chucks, before cracking it like a glow stick, causing it to emit a blue light so that she could scan the cave's interior. Seeing that it was empty, save for fallen rocks of various sizes, she sat Kobalt around the slight curve that the cave wall had. She looked to him to make sure she was good to go fight besides her squad, and he nodded towards the cave entrance.

As she rushed to rejoin the fight, using her semblance to move faster, she used the tracker to check her friends' aura levels. Seeing that they were all over half, save for Kobalt, she got ready for the skirmish she was running back into.

The unspoken strategy was rather simple but effective. Ivori would lash out with his pendulum whip to harass the Grimm and try to land a cut that would sever the snake tail. If the sphinx tried to attack the stylish teen, Ciel would lay down fire from an angle to distract it so that Ivori could put space between him and their enemy.

If it instead focused on Ciel, Neon would flank it and unleash a barrage of dust enhanced blows with her weapons. And when Neon would become its target, the dark-skinned boy would let loose a flurry of whip slashes to get the cat faunus clear of danger while Ciel would reload.

Their improvised strategy worked well, until the Grimm displayed its higher than normal intelligence again. It lunged towards Ciel with its right paw raised to deliver a heavy hit, but turned its blinded face to the left and unleashed a fireball aimed at Ivori, while its snake tail swung to impact the ginger faunus who'd been trying to flank from the creature's right side.

The paw swipe was a glancing blow but managed to knock the beret wearing girl off her feet and away from one of her weapons. The fireball was a bit off target, causing it to miss the charming teen slightly, but the heat was enough to cause him to flinch. The tail swipe however, hit its mark, and Neon had the air taken out of her chest for a brief spell as she flew and hit a tree with her back.

As the three got back up to their feet, they eyed the Grimm warily. As they prepared for another engagement, the sound of something sliding through the snow was heard faintly, progressively getting louder with each moment, before a fallen tree flew from the tree line towards the sphinx.

The beast reacted quickly, narrowly avoiding the large projectile as it passed by it into the snow. As the tree's motion slowed, Flynt climbed out of the center. As he approached the Grimm, he took his trumpet into his hands and readied himself to play a note.

The sphinx was not prepared to suddenly be assaulted by a fiery sonic wave buffeting its hide. A roar of pain came from the monstrosity as it swiveled its snake head towards the trumpeter. It took a step back from the students and eyed them with caution.

Flynt opted to ignore it completely as he jogged over to where his partner was crouched in the snow recovering from the last blow dealt to her.

"Sup Kit-Kat." She roller her eyes at him, as she took the hand he offered her to get pulled to her feet before she responded.

"You're late." She said as she lightly slapped his chest.

"Sorry. I'd have been here sooner, but I'm running off a few hours of sleep." Banter complete, his face shifted to one of concern as he looked at his lifelong friend. "But for real, are you good?"

She gave him a soft smile as she answered him. "Yeah, I just took a bit of a heavy hit is all. Still got all nine of my lives."

Flynt turned away from the girl and looked to the Grimm who was eyeing him specifically. He readied his trumpet as he prepped to engage the large sphinx with his squad mates.

Flynt opened up the fight with another fiery sonic wave attack, forcing the creature to avoid his attack. As it hopped to its side, the assault on the large Grimm continued with Ciel and Ivori rejoining the effort, and Neon waiting for an opportunity to land a good hit.

The battle continued before suddenly the sphinx let out a loud howl at the sunset sky. A pause followed, before a minute or so later, growls could be heard. They looked to the tree line surrounding them and noticed red eyes that were visible from the darkness of the frozen forest.

A few dozen Grimm began to emerge from the forest. Consisting mostly of sabyrs, boarbatusks, and an ursa here and there, but thankfully, no elders were among them. As the Grimm gathered around the only elder present, the sphinx, they began to growl and roar at the students and charge.

Ciel reloaded her revolvers, Flynt checked the dust vials in his trumpet valves, Ivori adjusted his glasses, and Neon began to stretch. Sufficiently prepared, the students ran forwards and began the chaotic battle with their enemies. As they fought, a dust cloud could faintly be seen approaching from behind the gathering of Grimm, but whatever was making it was approaching fast.

By the time one of the teens pointed it out, it had gotten much closer than a minute prior, but then suddenly disappeared. The teens were startled however, when around them, a few Grimm began to get impaled from above by familiar swords. Landing behind them was the innocent ginger of team JCKP, complete with her ever present smile.

"Greetings Friends!"

* * *

**(Meanwhile, Beacon Academy)**

"Again!" The voice of the commanding leader of team CFVY called out as she watched the members of teams RWBY and PRVN run through drills and spars against each other, or against Fox and Yatsuhashi.

Velvet stood on the sidelines as she needed to be able to quickly move to a new location if she thought there might be a better angle to capture the footage of the two team's training with Anesidora.

After another half hour of drills and training, the first years were given a 15 minute break to rest. Even Pyrrha and Vernal were a bit winded from the level of intensity that their upperclassman took with their training. Vernal only showed up to the team training as a way to gauge her strength against older students who were viewed as some of the best future huntsman at Beacon.

As Pyrrha sat on a bench in one, Velvet suddenly sat down besides her and started up a small conversation.

"So, how are you feeling?"

The red head was sweating a bit, but still gave the girl a smile as she answered.

"Good! I haven't had a workout like this in quite sometime. Our team's training sessions never last this long, even when we train with team RWBY."

The spartan girl put a hand over her heart as she continued to speak.

"After my recent loss, I realized that I needed to up my training, as well as my team's. Thanks to you and your team agreeing to train with us, we can get some proper physical training in, hopefully build better team relations, and further improve." Pyrrha looked to her friends as they all spoke with each other and laughed about various things and smiled.

"I feel like because of this, we can become stronger." Velvet in turn mirrored her smile knowing that after they did a brief review of their training session, that she would be compiling the footage she has to help Jaune and Cardin, who no one besides her team knew she was dating, so that they can come up with counters for teams RWBY and PRVN.

'You're not the only one getting stronger.'

* * *

**(A/N)**

**Hey again guys! Really quick update on this one I know. All I can really say is that this chapter almost wrote itself. Kinda threw me off, but I'm glad that y'all will have a chance to read it so soon.**

**Hope all of you are staying safe and healthy. DM me if you have any questions or if you just would like a small chat.**

**B.J.H.**


	11. Chapter 11-Starting Line

**(Chapter 11)**

Relief.

It washed through the veins of everyone present as the shortest member of team JCKP arrived to join the fight against the Grimm. The only two unaccounted members of the squad were, funnily enough, both of the captains.

Skipping pleasantries as their enemies resumed their assault, the tempo changed. Ciel having spent a great deal of time and supplies dueling with the sphinx to stall for time, felt the exhaustion begin to catch up to her.

Though she wanted to help more with the fighting, she knew there was something she could do that could still benefit them all. Quickly, she retreated to the cave where Kobalt was and took cover just inside the entrance. From here she could recuperate in safety, defend Kobalt from any stray Grimm, and still try to give long ranged support to her allies all at once.

Neon and Ivori were working together to thin the small horde of enemies attempting to swarm them, as they were the best choices currently to deal with multiple lower threat enemies quickly. Flynt and Penny were engaging the sphinx together by attacking with the android girl in front and Flynt at her rear guard.

From where he sat against the cave wall, Kobalt pushed himself to his feet and took out his tracker, and after activating it, looked to find his aura levels at just over fifteen percent. Taking a breath and stretching his arms out, he reinforced his fists with aura before punching the cave wall he sat at. He gave a small smirk at the impact it had before he walked to the entrance.

Ciel heard footsteps and turned to see her resilient teammate back on his feet and gave him a nod.

"What's the situation?" She observed him with a neutral expression as she answered him.

"You're in no position to fight Kobalt." He looked to his friends as they fought with mankind's sworn enemy as he responded.

"Maybe, but I'm not one to kick my feet up while my friends could use my strength." The timely girl just sighed as she began to relay info to the blue-clad brawler.

"I used up a lot of aura and ammunition holding that thing back, and we've got Grimm from basically every point in front of us. The others are split fighting the horde and the sphinx, and while Penny and Flynt arrived as backup, Whitley and Jaune are still unaccounted for."

Kobalt cracked his neck before he checked his gauntlet and swords. After his brief equipment check, he patted Ciel on the shoulder as he passed by her.

"Thanks for keeping me safe while I took a breather." The shorter girl gave a small smile to her teammate.

"What are friends for?"

And with that, he looked for a suitable target as he ran to rejoin the fight. As he was sprinting, Kobalt weighed the option of fighting the sphinx against thinning the Grimm ambushing them. Though he wanted to participate in the slaying of the monster that had previously taken him out of the fight, he instead swerved away from the sphinx to help Neon and Ivori.

Making his reentrance to the fight by delivering a devastating blow to a sabyr pouncing to attack Neon, he began to help extinguish the Grimm from the battlefield.

"Hey Koby! Good to have you back!" Neon's ecstatic voice called out over the sounds of battle, followed by Ivori's question.

"You good?"

Kobalt ran his fist into the mask of another sabyr as he responded to the teen a few feet away. "Could be worse."

Ivori nodded to him, and together, the three fought together to reduce the horde of smaller Grimm.

With the sphinx, Flynt and Penny were making slow progress in taking it down. Flynt had to be careful of using his dust enhanced sonic waves to not harm his teammate. The dark-skinned boy looked around them to see that the swarm of enemies that had surrounded them was beginning to thin, but it seemed as if reinforcements had arrived, as the arriving Grimm were rebolstering the numbers lost.

The trumpeter grunted as the enemy numbers began to rebolster, but something he never expected happened.

From the tree line, a sabyr that looked to be made of snow leapt into the fray with a familiar figure on its back. As it was descending, the sound of a gun being fired was heard, followed by the death of a few various Grimm. As the summoned sabyr's paws hit the snow, the figure on its back climbed off and walked towards his friends.

"My apologies, it seems I'm a bit late to the party."

From his position, Flynt stood in silent surprise, not having expected for the Schnee to have followed after him to aid his team and squad. He watched as the boy exchanged brief pleasantries with his teammates, before he looked to the trumpeter and gave a nod of the head, a gesture that Flynt returned.

Suddenly, Penny disengaged from the fight to stand next to Flynt as she investigated the darkening evening sky. After a few moments, a smile emerged on her features that made her teammate question where her sudden happiness came from, but before he could question her, she spoke.

"He's here."

Flynt scanned the distance the android was gazing towards, having a good idea as to who she was referring to, but couldn't see anything. A crackle of static came over the trackers of all the students, followed by a voice they all knew and were glad to hear.

"Get to cover, Now!"

Despite wondering why they needed to seek shelter, all the teens were sprinting towards the cave Ciel was resting in. As they joined her in the cave, all was quiet save for the growls and snarls coming from the Grimm that were slowly advancing on the cave.

Just then, a loud screech was heard overhead. Whitley got to the edge of the cave and peered upwards, followed by the rest of his squad. They were stunned as they saw an elder strix and its flock diving towards the battlefield. As it progressively got closer, they were able to make out a figure glowing white on its back and realized who it was.

From his place on the strix's back, Jaune had stabbed the elder around its wing joints with his weapon's dual sword form and was steering it on a crash course with the ground. Not wanting to go down with his mode of transportation, he yanked his swords free of the elder's thick skin and leapt backwards so that he could employ his landing strategy.

He watched as the elder strix shifted slightly to not die from the fall, but its flock weren't so lucky. Without any commands being given, the rest of the flock was still following its leader at full speed, and began to impact the battlefield at terminal velocity, taking out the smaller Grimm that had surrounded his friends shelter.

As his boots softly touched the ground, a weight impacted his back. He turned to face his partner and gave her a thumbs up as their friends joined them.

"Nice throw Partner." Penny gave him a smile in response to his praise. Around them, their friends blanched at the implications of what he'd just said, save for one.

"Best. Team leader. Ever! No offense Whitley." Neon's remark drew chuckles from everyone present. Whitley just shook his head with a small smile as he walked to his fellow team leader.

"Just when I think you can't do anything more reckless; you use an elder strix as a mode of transportation."

Jaune motioned for a fist bump, and Whitley's knuckles met the taller teen's own.

A screech interrupted their reunion, and the two teams surveyed the clearing. The two Grimm that were left were the strix that had regained its bearing and the sphinx. The squad's co-captains shared a look.

"You take the sphinx, we'll take the strix?" The blonde of team JCKP questioned his friend.

"My thoughts exactly." The younger teen responded, and with that, teams JCKP and WICK went to opposite ends of the clearing to engage their chosen targets.

"Flynt! At range, you are our best option, Penny and I'll get it on the ground. Neon, once we do, keep it from to flying again. Flynt once that's done, it's all you." With that, they moved to take down their enemy.

Jaune was firing at the owl Grimm while Penny was using her lasers to try and land a shot that would bring the bone-clad beast back to the ground.

"Penny, can you pull it down?" The girl in question ran calculations for a moment before, she nodded to her partner.

"I'll leave the timing to you."

While JCKP was preparing to bring their enemy down, WICK was harassing the sphinx from every direction, not giving it time to choose a target from the four of them. The pain it felt from the slashes, punches, and gunshots from the teens kept building, until it released a roar and began to spin so that it could clear them from around itself to get some space.

But its spin was halted by Kobalt holding one of its front legs in place, and he wouldn't budge. It looked down and a glow began to emanate from its throat as it prepared a breath of fire, but before it could continue, a white whip wrapped itself around the sphinx's maw and shut it.

The increasing danger of the situation wasn't lost on the sphinx, and its tail sneakily maneuvered itself to strike at the boy in white but was caught off guard as it was snared in Whitley's lasso. The snake tail glared at the leader of team WICK, who smiled back before flicking a switch on the handle, causing the lighting dust to activate and emit a blue light along the lasso, before it reached the loop and decapitated the snake tail as if it was a plasma cutter.

Another roar of agony came from the beast as it was completely blind now, only having the ability to sense negativity as its form of sight, of which there was currently none. Ivori released his whip's hold on the Grimm as Kobalt jumped away to prepare an aura enhanced strike. Whitley summoned two glyphs, one below the sphinx causing it to be suspended in the air, and another for his blue-clad teammate to use to propel himself.

As Kobalt shot forwards, he delivered a destructive blow to the Grimm that sent it falling to the center of the clearing. As it tried to get up, a screech from above caused the members of team WICK to look up to see a falling strix land atop the sphinx.

Neon took this as her chance and burst into movement with her semblance, cracking her nunchaku as she did so to set them to ice dust.

In a rainbow streak, she ran around the two downed enemies, freezing them together and to the ground where she could. From their position away from the Grimm, Whitley made a glyph for Ciel to fire through, and as her bullets impacted the two Grimm, they began to encase it in ice like Neon was doing. Flynt summoned his clones to help speed up completely covering the two in ice.

Soon, the two grim were frozen together completely in a large block of ice, but still very much alive. Work done, everyone stepped back as Penny skipped to stand in front of the ice containing their enemies. She brought her blades out in front of her and put out her hands as a green glow appeared. After a moment to gather energy, she pulled her arms back, and then pushed forwards sending a beam straight through the ice, and the two Grimm inside.

Black mist began to leak from the hole she made, and soon cheers from the teens filled the darkened sky.

* * *

A bright fire surrounded by teens chatting the night away. Some inspected their equipment, others ate rations, but everyone was content.

As time went on, Whitley sat on a stump a bit away from the group thinking some things over. To his side, he noticed someone sit down on the rock next to him, and when he looked over, he was surprised to see Flynt.

For a while, neither of them spoke, both teens having something on their minds, but unwilling to start.

"Guess I'll start." It was a reluctant opening to the topic both teens had on their minds, and Flynt had Whitley's full attention as he continued.

"…I misjudged you. I didn't think you would come to help with the fight, but I was wrong."

Flynt stayed quiet for a moment and the youngest Schnee took that as his queue to respond.

"Well, what you said about how you could fight with everything you have if you know your friends are alright, that made me think about some things."

Another silence, but no tension was present; an improvement to be sure.

"Why did you follow after me to come help them." Genuine curiosity filled Flynt's question.

Whitley thought about what he felt at the moment he made his choice to run after Flynt.

"I don't know. I just moved and before I knew it, I was running down that hill at full speed." The white-haired teen paused before he continued.

"But as I was running, I realized you were right. I wanted to fight besides my friends, so there was really only one thing to do."

The two sat in silence after that, before Flynt put a hand towards Whitley. The younger teen looked at him as he explained.

"Look, I think we started out on the wrong foot. So, if you want, let's wipe the slate clean and maybe go from there?"

It was an honest proposal, one that the well-mannered teen accepted by returning the handshake.

The following morning, everyone was ready to travel after packing up their impromptu camp. After a breakfast of rations, Whitley and Jaune were discussing the possible next course of action when the rest of their squad approached.

"So, what's the plan guys?"

The two co-captains looked at the one who asked, Ivori, and Jaune began to speak.

"Well, judging from the tracker, if we want to make to Mantle, we just head straight in that direction. But…" The blonde sent a look to the leader of team WICK, who picked up the explanation.

"We think that since we have so much time left in the exam, that we should try and round up the other students."

Their squad mates weren't expecting that and sent them looks asking for an explanation.

"In our first-year class, there are six squads including us. That means that there are forty other students scattered outside Mantle besides us. We checked the tracker's display during the morning location ping, and it looks like all forty of the other students are alive at the very least." While not personally connected to many of the other students in their year, it was nice to know that their classmates were all still alive and kicking.

Whitley picked up where Jaune left off as their squad started to think. "Luckily, we won't have to back track, and most of the other students have found themselves a traveling companion, but there are some stragglers. We think that we should split up into our individual teams, round up the other students, and reconvene at the center most gate from our position by no later than the last day, earlier if possible."

The youngest teen present pointed to a gate to show where they would meet up. Kobalt decided to voice a question that presented itself in his head.

"What happens if one group doesn't reconvene by then?" Jaune turned to the blue brawler as he answered.

"If that happens, then we go bring them back. Together." The two captains gave them all a moment to think, before they shared a look and Whitley asked them the question.

"Are all of you onboard with this plan?" The group looked amongst themselves before they began to smirk and nod.

"We trust you, both of you." With that the two teams split into their individual groups, with team WICK going to collect the students to the north, and team JCKP moving to collect the students to the south.

* * *

**(Day 14, Mid-term passing deadline, Edge of Mantle)**

Standing in the center of one of the gate's to Mantle was General James Ironwood himself. Peering at his watch, he saw the timer on his watch slowly counting down. No students had arrived yet, and anyone that was to pass needed to arrive within the next fifteen minutes.

He stood vigilant at the gates, watching the blizzard veiled land ahead of him, praying for at least one student to return to Mantle safe. The disciplined man thought back to when the previous headmaster conducted this same exam. He and his team made it back to Mantle on the evening of seventh, setting a record, but sadly, they were also the only team from his year to return.

The only student who came close to his record was one of his specialists, Winter Schnee, who returned on the morning of the ninth day, without her team. When her team arrived two days later, they requested formal transfers to different squads because she had left them when they disagreed with her.

Ironwood saw a rebellious spirit who wanted to belong to something in the eldest of the Schnee siblings, and so after drilling discipline, respect, and camaraderie into the girl, she earned the title of specialist, someone who inspired those things in others.

He looked down at his watch and saw the timer; ten-minutes left. He looked to one of his soldiers and held his hand out and was handed a tablet sized scroll.

"Any changes?"

The older soldier he spoke to shake his head negatively as he answered his superior.

"None sir. The blizzard is interfering with the signals of the trackers. Normally they'd still show locations, or if it really was messing with our system, aura readings next to the names of students. But right now, we're bli-"

The tablet made a sound from where it was held in the hands of the General, and just as both men were about to look at the screen, a voice from the top of the wall surrounding Atlas called out. Quickly, Ironwood handed the tablet back to the soldier, who watched the general briskly make his way up the stairs to the top of the wall.

As he arrived, he looked to the younger man who'd likely been a member of the Atlesian military for no more than five years.

"Report." The younger man saluted before he spoke with a grin on his face.

"Sir, you need to see this."

With that, he moved away from his place behind the viewing scope so that the general could observe the open expanse ahead of them. As he scanned the environment, the blizzard began to lighten slowly, and his eyes widened at what he was seeing.

He stepped away from the scope before thanking the younger man and making his way down to stand outside of the gates that led to Mantle. With only a bit less than a minute left, in front of the general stood every first-year huntsman hopeful he'd scattered into the frozen wilderness of Solitas.

And standing ahead of them was teams JCKP and WICK. He cleared his throat and gave a speech to the returning students, praising their skills, their tenacity, their will, and asking forgiveness for his methods. It was a formality to be sure, and some here and there still seemed rather upset all things considered but stayed silent.

After he concluded, he stood to the side of the gate so that the students could enter Mantle and relinquish their trackers to the waiting soldiers who were assisting the exam.

James looked at the large gathering of students as they conversed among each other and spotted the ones who were likely responsible for making this possible at the center of the gathering; the leaders of team JCKP and WICK. He stood with his arms behind his back as he studied the two young men with a smile.

For they may have taken almost every moment they were given to pass, this was the first year in decades that a class in its entirety returned home. He'd have to remember to write a letter to Ozpin, thanking him for the talent he'd sent to have honed at his academy.

But first, he would enjoy the relief that came with not having any fallen students in a dangerous exam.

* * *

**(A/N)**

**Hey again, hope you're all still enjoying the read. This chapter wrote itself pretty quick, but I also did a LOT of rewriting and backtracking with this one.**

**Ultimately, I decided not to include the 12 days of searching through the forest cause it came out as boring and mundane every time I approached it.**

**But! That means that we are finished with the Midterms, and that means were getting closer to the end of the first semester, which for me is very exciting.**

**Also, do you think that maybe I should respond to comments in A/N's, or should I PM the reviewer instead?**

**Stay healthy,**

**B.J.H.**


	12. Chapter 12-Proof

**(Chapter 12)**

The bullhead ride back up to Atlas was a quiet affair. Once they touched down, virtually every student made their way to either the cafeteria or their dorms. Two weeks without a proper meal or a real bed made returning to their own all the more pleasurable.

Knowing that they would have the next two weeks off from classes, the members of JCKP and WICK agreed to hang out with each other during their brief break. Plan to make plans effectively made, the two teams split up, with WICK heading to the cafeteria, and JCKP heading to their dorms.

Immediately once the door to their room was open, a rainbow flash put Neon from where she stood behind her friends, to being face down on her bed. The group smiled to each other at her antics, before they began to do various things. Flynt left to go to the dorm's community kitchen so that he could make Neon's favorite snack, coconut macaroons, and Penny began to chat with the faunus girl, understanding her perfectly despite being muffled.

Jaune enjoyed the feeling of having friends as good as these and debated what he should do with the rest of his down time. Not having stored his weapon yet, the blonde remembered that he had still yet to name it. But other things also came to the forefront of his mind, and he decided to make his way to the labs again to see if he could stumble into the genius that was Pietro Polendina.

As the leader of team JCKP walked through the halls, getting nods of acknowledgement from various students that had travelled with him and his squad, however briefly, he began to think about himself in combat.

Every time he found himself in combat, if he used his weapon's shield form, his off hand would twitch, instinctively wanting to counterattack, but he was without the means to do so. His twin swords were fun to use but holding two swords didn't feel natural to him. The lance and umbrella form he quite enjoyed, and while he was beginning to develop some skills with the polearm, he still lacked a definite style.

Before long, he found himself standing in the entrance to the lab and saw the man he was looking for scanning over some blueprints. As the blonde approached the older man, his presence didn't go unnoticed, as the dark-skinned man's face lit up and he left his blueprints behind to greet the teen.

"Jaune my boy, good to see you back home!"

Home huh? A moment to think about the memories he made at Atlas later, and he smiled.

"Glad to be back."

Pietro looked and saw that Jaune still had his weapon on his person and asked a question.

"So, how is she treating you?" He asked as he stroked his beard.

Jaune looked a bit embarrassed as he began to explain.

"W-well, she uh, she's great. Best partner a guy could ask for. She's always helping me out, trusts me in a fight," Pietro was proud of the weapon he'd created, and knowing the blonde's character, knew that this was high praise. The only thing that confused his was the last statement.

He was making it sound like the weapon was alive, which was a tad odd. But then he took note of the look on the younger man's face, the slight embarrassed tendencies he was showing, and the faint blush he was trying to conceal.

Oh.

_Oh._

The older man smiled and motioned for him to continue.

"she's incredible. She's willing to go along with my crazy plans, and even though she worries about me a lot, she also tries to help me any way she can. And she seems to have this ability to make the people around her smile."

Pietro let out a bellowing laugh, as he calmed himself and responded to the young man.

"That's some high praise if I've ever heard it! But, Jaune…" the blonde turned to look at him, and the older man continued to speak in a whisper tone.

"I was talking about your weapon."

A moment of silence, before suddenly, the teen turned a few shades redder as he covered his face with his hands, thoroughly mortified and embarrassed at having made a fool of himself.

The older man motioned for him to follow and led him to the seating area of the lab, before going to make a pot of coffee.

Jaune sat in silence for a few minutes, calming himself, and graciously accepted the mug of energy being handed to him by the older man.

"Now, tell me about your weapon."

The boy looked embarrassed again but shook it off to instead answer the man.

"Well, I love it. You and Penny put a ton of work and thought into this weapon."

"But?" The boy hesitated before he answered.

"But there's quite a lot to manage. From having to become more accurate for my bow to be effective, to fighting with just a shield, having two swords; it lets me adapt to whatever the situation might be. But without any personal teaching or even styles to learn from, I feel like maybe I need to cut down on what I have to work with."

The older man took out his tablet, before he brought up the files for Jaune's weapon and put them on display, smiling as he spoke.

"I'm glad to hear it." Confusion set in for the leader of team JCKP as he tried to figure out what his partner's father meant. Seeing that he'd lost the younger man, Pietro explained.

"Jaune, I didn't expect you to master a weapon with five different forms, all of which being drastically different from each other. This was more of a trial weapon so that you could experiment with different weapons, different ranges, and practice different methods to approach battle." A look of realization dawned on the younger man, and Pietro continued to speak.

"Now that you've had a chance to experiment with different ways to fight, what do you have in mind for your weapon."

Jaune thought back to when he used a sword and a shield. It may not have truly been his weapon, but it felt almost natural in his hands. He also liked using the lance and umbrella.

"Well, I'd like to keep the metal the same, and I'd like for the shield to become a sheath for the sword."

"Like Crocea Mors?" This elicited some surprise from the blonde.

"You know it?" The older man smiled as he lost himself in thought for a moment before he answered.

"I sure do. So, besides that, anything else? Or are we just making a standard sword and shield."

"Well, I have a few ideas."

And with that, the birth of Jaune Arc's true weapon would begin creation.

* * *

The first day of their break following midterms was pure enjoyment for teams JCKP and WICK. They spent the morning of the first day at a quiet little café near the academy. The aroma of coffee permeated the building, and gently roused the teens from their groggy state.

Taking their seats at the coffee bar and making their orders, the group was graced with warm cups of delicious energy that also served to further enhance the hunger they felt. Soon, the wonderful scent of coffee was accompanied by the sounds of friends laughing among each other as they had breakfast.

The owner of the café would normally have asked them to not be so boisterous, but smiled fondly as he saw the happiness practically radiating from the group. It also helped that the other patrons, elderly folk and their grandchildren, didn't seem to mind either. The older guests shared his smile as they watched the teens act their age; chuckling softly as they saw the cream-coffee moustache Neon was sporting after taking a liberal slurp of her drink.

The kids were laughing and pointing at the girl's antics, before she realized that she had a small audience and with a mischievous smile, used her semblance to close the distance between where she sat and the kids quicker than the civilians could recognize. The kids were shocked a bit from her quick movement but began to laugh as she ruffled their hair.

Now the teens shared a laugh at the kid's expense, and once Neon released them from her clutches, the two kids gave the group the most adorable pouts they could muster, this time getting laughs from the café owner and the grandparents. Though a wonderful affair, their time at the café came to an end, as the group made their way to their next destination, they waved bye to the kids.

They walked at a lazy pace, chatting as they went, before they finally stood in front of their next destination, La Grandiose, the mall of the floating kingdom. It had five floors with escalators and elevators littering the expanse and was quite wide.

Fancy boutiques selling all types of items drew the attention of the teen squad, some of them even managing to draw the group inside. A moment turned to an hour, and an hour grew to three as the teens slowly had a portion of their day stolen from them. As they finally returned to the first floor of the mall, the sound of laughter and photos being taken caught their attention.

Making their way towards the cheerful atmosphere, they were greeted with a large indoor ice-skating rink. The group shared looks, before they all grew matching smiles and ran to pay for rental skates. After donning their bladed footwear, the group of teens began to file out onto the ice.

Neon, unsurprisingly, was in her element with the skates, despite being on the ice, while Flynt, Kobalt, and Ivori only had to regain their bearings a few times before beginning to skate slowly and cautiously. What did come as a shock to the teens was when Jaune and Whitley began to skate rather comfortably on the ice as if with practiced ease.

Another shock came from Ciel and Penny, however for opposite reasons. They just couldn't manage to stay up on the ice and would either stumble or fall onto their hind ends when they tried to skate or remain upright. Jaune and Whitley saw the trouble their partners were having and with a shared nod, made their way over to the two girls.

The girls' partners offering them assistance to their feet, both took them. With incredible patience, the two partner pairs slowly began to skate together, the more experienced skaters taking their time to gently coach their partners.

While Penny could have run calculations on how best to position her feet so that she could skate perfectly, she reveled in the chance to genuinely learn something through experience, especially since her partner was the one teaching her. As the two girls slowly began to better themselves on the ice, the rest of the squad watched the two pairs with warm smiles.

Neon looked to Flynt, who in turn looked away before rubbing the back of his neck and skating towards his partner and lifetime friend. Satisfied with his presence, the two began to skate together slower than before.

Before long, the daylight had waned and the sky above was beginning to turn from the beautiful pink, red, and orange of sunset to the subtle, mysterious purple that would soon turn into a sky full of stars. As they walked below the darkening evening sky, the group began to head back to the academy.

It was a peaceful and mellow trip that took them the better part of an hour to make at their leisurely pace. Once they arrived, the group agreed to have dinner together in the incredibly spacious dorm common area. Flynt, Kobalt, and Jaune all set to work to prepare a feast for them and their friends to enjoy.

As they cooked, the smell of food began to draw more than just the appetites of their friends, and soon other hungry students began to slowly appear in the area asking if they could eat as well.

James Ironwood exited the elevator and slowly walked through the halls in thought, before he heard sounds of laughter and conversation, as well as the scent of wonderful food. Making his way to the dorm commons, his eyes widened a bit and he smiled as before him, most of the first-year students were gathered together.

As he scanned the room, he saw students from different teams making conversation as they ate meals from disposable plates. As he looked to the kitchen in the corner of the commons, he spotted the group he felt had a part to play in this. Thanking a few students from their year for helping to make the feast possible were the culinarily gifted members of team's WICK and JCKP.

The rest of their squad sat contently in the kitchen area eating and enjoying the mood, laughing at what he assumed where jokes and exaggerated retellings of events, but he couldn't hold down the immeasurable amount of pride he felt at the cohesion and camaraderie the first-years were displaying. He was about to leave, when his eyes locked with Jaune's. The teen fixed one last plate and made his way over to the general.

Presented with a plate of food, the older man was about to politely decline when his stomach reminded him that he'd skipped dinner while he attended to his duties. Taking the plate, he thanked the younger man before he began to walk towards his office.

Once there, he tentatively eyed the food before taking the first bite, and before he could realize what had happened, he had enjoyed the plate of food cooked by the students. He made a mental note that if the students responsible for crafting the meal he just had found themselves in trouble, to give them a week or two of kitchen duty.

The afternoon of the second day came, and the members of JCKP and WICK had all gone to do different activities for the day. Neon and Flynt had left to go down to Mantle to visit their families together, while Kobalt and Ivori were going to visit their family on the opposite side of Atlas. Ciel and Penny also had other things to attend to, Ciel going to a huntsman grade mechanic for work on her revolvers, and Penny having plans to spend the day with Pietro.

Having finished taking a shower and redressing, Jaune sat on the edge of his bed observing the quiet, empty room around him. Minutes ticked by before he couldn't stand it and made his way to team WICK's dorm to try and hang out with his fellow captain.

As he prepared to rap his knuckles on the door, it opened revealing Whitley who looked surprised at his presence.

"Jaune? What brings you here?"

The older teen rubbed the back of his neck before he responded. "Well…I was sitting in the dorm by myself and since everyone else was gonna be gone for the day, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to hang out."

The younger teen's face turned downcast as he responded. "Grand as that idea is, my day has suddenly become occupied. My…father requests my presence at home today." The hesitation in the youngest Schnee's voice made Jaune worry a bit for him.

As he closed the door behind him, the white-haired teen began to walk towards the elevator, and Jaune noticed that even how he moved was different. Before he could get far, his blonde friend spoke again.

"Would you like me to come with you?" From his position, the shorter teen's eyes widened before he turned to his friend with an incredulous look on his face, and he was met with the genuine concern that was on his fellow leader's face. Quickly remembering his position, he reigned in his emotions before he responded.

"T-That won't be necessary…" He paused for a moment before he spoke again. "Besides, I couldn't ask you to do that, nor should I trouble you with my family problems." Jaune just gave him a look that was meant to calm his friend as he spoke.

"There's nothing wrong with getting a little help from time to time Whitley, especially if a friend is offering."

The blonde's words bounced around in the wealthy teen's head, before he relented and motioned for Jaune to follow him.

"If you are absolutely certain, then I suppose your company would be appreciated."

As the two teens walked through the school grounds, neither of them said anything. Eventually, the two arrived at the academy's main entrance, and a long black limo was parked there waiting for the youngest Schnee, with an older man standing next to the vehicle to open the door for the white-haired teen. The older man was balding with a bushy moustache and brown eyes, carrying an air of obligation and dignity about him.

"Ah, I hope you're having a good day Mr. Schnee." The man said as he opened the door to the limo's interior to the approaching teen.

"I am, and I hope the same for you Klein." The white-haired teen looked to his fellow captain, who was asking a silent question. Taking notice of boy's company, Klein looked to the youngest Schnee before he spoke again.

"And who might this be?" Whitley took a step forward and explained.

"This is Jaune. He is the co-captain for the squad we lead, and he's someone I trust."

The older man smiled happily for the younger man, his eyes changing to yellow as he put a hand on the teen's shoulder as he continued to speak, the sound of his voice changing slightly.

"It does so bring me joy to see you making friends Whitley." Whitley beamed to the head butler of the Schnee to family before he responded.

"Thank you, Klein." With the pleasantries aside, the white-haired teen cleared his throat as he looked to the older man.

"Would you happen to be privy as to why I'm needed home?" The older man took his face into his palm as if exasperated by the memory of something, and when he responded, he again had undergone another change, this time, his eyes were red, and his tone was like gravel.

"I suspect Sir is looking to monitor you; see if you're still compliant to his wishes." Before he could continue his rant, his eyes shifted to a vibrant blue and he sneezed. As the butler stuttered out apologies, Whitley looked to his friend who had been waiting to ask a question.

"Did…his eyes just change color?" The blonde teen's question earned a nod from the wealthy teen, who decided to explain.

"Klein is our family's head butler. His eyes change color based on his personality," Whitley gained a sincere smile as he turned from his friend to look to the man who was patiently holding the limo door open for him.

"he's also the one who was primarily responsible for raising me and my sisters." At this, Klein's eyes changed once more, this time to purple as he looked rather bashful at the younger man's words. As the butler began to deflect the praise, Jaune was caught off guard by something the youngest Schnee said.

'Sisters?'

The blonde teen was broken from his thoughts as his friend motioned for him to enter the limousine with him. At this, Klein was surprised and questioned Whitley.

"Mister Schnee, will your friend be accompanying you to the mansion?" When he asked the question, the teen in question stiffed for the briefest of moments, something that didn't go unnoticed by the balding gentleman. Klein's eyes gazed down to the white-haired teen's hand and saw that it was shaking briefly, before he composed himself and answered the inquiry.

"Yes, I felt that it was only natural that I should introduce my friend and fellow leader to my family." Klein deciphered the words instantly. The young man was nervous, and Jaune was going to go with him for support. He nodded his head and motioned for Whitley to enter.

As the Schnee entered the limo, Jaune was about to follow after him, when a hand was extended towards him from the butler. The tall blonde looked and saw a thankful expression on the butler's face, his eyes yellow once more. They said nothing for a moment before Jaune accepted the handshake with a smile.

* * *

The limousine ride was quiet, as the leader of team JCKP wanted to let his friend collect his nerves for whatever lay ahead of them at the Schnee mansion. As he looked outside the vehicle's tinted windows, he watched as the areas they rode through progressively became wealthier.

A half hour passed with nothing said between the teens, before the limo began to slow. Whitley took a deep breath as they stopped before exiting the limo and walking towards the mansion with Jaune in tow. The white-haired teen stopped before turning to look to the head butler who was standing outside the limo. The older man gave the teen a nod before reentering the vehicle to drive it to where it would be parked.

As they approached, the doors were opened for them by two maids who'd likely been told to await his arrival. As the two teens entered, Jaune's eyes widened at the space around him. The large foyer seemed to exude the sense of status and prestige, but then he shivered.

It was cold, not like the frigid outdoor air of Atlas, but…devoid of warmth. A house, no, a home of this size should be filled with the sounds of laughing family members and friends, but it was quiet. He could hear his friend's slightly quickened breathing, and the sounds of butlers and maids moving about with purpose to their next tasks.

After standing still for another minute or so, the youngest Schnee made his way towards one of the halls with Jaune following him. The trudging pace the two had taken allowed the blonde teen to observe the walls around him. Various pictures adorned the wall. Pictures and paintings of Schnee family, some individual portraits, and other group photographs. But there was one thing that every photo he managed to lay his eyes on had in common.

Not a single picture had a member of the Schnee family smiling.

As he observed the walls, he looked ahead of him and had to stop himself from bumping into the wealthy teen, who had stopped outside a door that had an imposing aura about it.

He waited patiently and watched as Whitley's hand slowly reached out and grasped the doorknob, before twisting it and pulling the door open. As the door opened, the two teens were greeted by the sight of a man sitting at a desk across the room from them. He had his head down as he read and signed various things, before looking up to see who had entered his study.

Upon laying eyes on his son, the man nodded and motioned for him to enter. Robotically, Whitley entered the room and stood just inside, with Jaune having stood next to him after closing the door behind them.

A minute passed as the only sound in the room was that of the older Schnee's pen against, presumably, important documents. After another few moments, his pen stopped moving and the room now deafened. Both teens watched as the older man nodded and neatly put the papers into a stack, before standing up and making his way to the two.

As he stood a few feet away from both teens, Whitley was the one who spoke first.

"Its good to see you again Father." The older man adopted a posture similar to his son's, except more practiced and professional if at all possible as he addressed Whitley.

"Whitley, I'm pleased to see you accepted my request to visit your home."

The way he said that made Jaune flinch slightly. It sounded endearing but Jaune could detect something else in the man's words and tone, but he couldn't quite place it.

But he knew that it put him on edge.

His reaction had drawn the attention of the Schnee patriarch, and the older man turned to face him as he studied the teen up and down. He looked back to his son and asked him a question.

"Who is this that you've brought with you?" His tone was even, neither displeased nor content.

"This is Jaune, he's an associate of mine from the academy. He is the co-captain for the squad we lead." Jaune noticed quickly that Whitley didn't refer to him as a friend to his father, and quickly caught on that he was likely expected to keep his classmates at a distance. The man's gaze fell back to the blonde as he seemed to be in thought of something, and then asked a question.

"Jaune, is it? What is your family name?" Whitley was slightly worried as his father asked his friend that question.

"I don't have one sir." Then man observed him before pondering on the teen's response.

"I see," As he said this, he seemed to remember something.

"Ah, pardon me young man, I seem to have forgotten my manners. My name is Jacques Schnee." Jaune nodded to the man and watched as his friend's father walked to the seats in the center of his study before motioning for them to join him.

They both took seats across the table from Jacques, Jaune sitting silent as Whitley cleared his throat before beginning to speak.

"Now that I've arrived Father, may I ask what it is that you've called me here for?" The question was careful and measured, just as he'd been taught.

The older man leaned back into his chair raising a hand slightly as he spoke. "Is a father not allowed to want to see his son from time to time?" The Schnee patriarch reached next to him and pulled an expensive bottle of alcohol from the fancy miniature liquor cabinet that stood next to him no taller than the armrest of his seat.

After fixing himself with a drink, he took a small sip, enjoying the liquid as he went to continue conversating with Whitley.

"Truth be told, I just wanted to do away with any worries I might have about your stay at Atlas." Whitley's being tensed again, this time so much that even Jaune noticed, but the façade the boy wore on his face betrayed his body language.

"I apologize for not having contact with you for the last two weeks Father. I was preoccupied with my midterm exam and was unable to access my scroll."

At this, a bit of interest had sparked in the eyes of the older white-haired man, and he questioned his son.

"Oh? And do tell, what did your exam consist of?"

Whitley was worried of his father's reaction as he tried to carefully answer the question.

"Well…it was a practical exam. We were stationed outside Atlas and were given an objective to complete with a fourteen-day deadline."

Whitley's attempt to understate the details of the exam didn't go unseen by his father. Jacques immediately began to ask targeted questions.

"That sounds exciting to say the least. And were you in Mantle?" Whitley winced as he responded truthfully.

"No sir, we were stationed outside of Mantle." Jacques took another sip of the pricey liquor he'd poured for himself and continued.

"Hm…and you said you were stationed out in the frozen wilderness. Naturally, you must have had an instructor with you, right Son?"

Jaune noticed that the question, didn't quite feel like one. He continued to look between the two as Whitley answered his father.

"N-No sir, it was just us students. We were given the devices to assist in locating other students and members of our squad." Immediately after the words left his mouth, his eyes widened slightly. He accidentally released a tidbit of information that he wanted to withhold.

"You had to locate your squad? Correct me if I'm wrong, but that implies that the exam began with you alone in the Grimm lands." The older man paused, and upon receiving silence from the youngest of his children, asked another question.

"How did they manage to station you and all the other students outside Mantle in a meaningful way? There must have been quite a few students out there during all of this. Couldn't you have just watched to see where your associates were and proceed to make your way to each other?"

Whitley's clenched the fist hidden under his hand as he tried to keep an image of composure.

"They released a harmless, odorless sleeping agent through the first-year dorm ventilation system. When we awoke, we were in secure rooms outside of Atlas, with our weapons, munitions, and supplies to last us for two weeks."

A raised eyebrow and a sip of his drink from the older Schnee later, and Jacques continued.

"What was your objective for passing?"

Whitley swallowed before he answered the question, tension in the room beginning to creep upon his nerves.

"To successfully make our way back to Mantle."

The older man rubbed his chin in thought before he responded to his son's explanation.

"Ah…and you said the exam had a fourteen-day deadline, correct Son?" At this, the teen nodded warily before Jacques made a look of contemplation.

"How far away from Mantle did they leave you exactly?" Whitley looked like he really didn't want to answer the man but sighed and answered.

"Roughly 100 kilometers." At this, Jacques recoiled before closing his eyes and massaging his temples. A silence followed, before the Schnee patriarch laced his fingers together as he addressed his son.

"I must confess Whitley; I don't feel comfortable with what you've had to endure to this point. I'm not sure I'm okay with you continuing your stay at Atlas." Immediately, both teens looked alarmed, But Whitley caught something. The look in his father's eyes, it was as if he was expecting something.

Then he realized. His father wanted him to convince him to let him stay at the academy. He took a deep breath and began.

"I understand the risks that come with this field of learning Father, but I passed the exam with relatively no danger to myself. Not to mention, I have supportive allies on my squad. They help me improve my combat capabilities so that I can become stronger." Sensing that this would be a good time to assist his friend, Jaune added his input as well.

"Its true sir, since classes started, our two teams have been really close. We help each other grow and overcome whatever comes our way. When our teams became paired to form a squad, we found it odd. Our squads being the strongest of our year, we found it strange that we were paired together before Whitley deduced that we were likely to become a P.R. squad for Atlas' academy."

Jacques regarded the blonde with a calculating look, before he looked to his son and responded.

"That does ease my fears a tad, but I'm still not quite sure about allowing you to continue attending. Forgive me for saying so Son, but when you left, you'd only had your aura unlocked for a short time. That combined with your lack of training, I find it hard to believe that you've improved as much as this all implies."

Whitley felt as if his father had caught him in a corner, and he couldn't think of a way out, when he remembered the one thing that might be able to convince his father to let him continue attending the academy.

The teen put out a hand towards the space in front of the door to his father's study and closed his eyes to focus, searching inside himself for the feeling that was present when he used the summoning power of the Schnee family. He thought about the previous day and all the enjoyment he had spending time with his friends, and how he didn't want to let them end.

As he remembered skating on the ice with Ciel and how Jaune offered to come with him to see his family, a Schnee summoning glyph appeared before the occupants of the room, and upon snapping his eyes open, the sabyr that he'd summoned before appeared before them, though slightly smaller than before.

The white-haired teen looked to his father and was met with a look of pure shock. Knowing everything he could learn about the Schnee family, he understood the significance that came with attaining the power to summon fallen foes. The older man nodded his head slightly, before he motioned for Whitley to release his summoned Grimm. After he did, the man stood in the space that Whitley's sabyr previously occupied and beckoned for the teen to come towards him.

Moment later, the youngest Schnee stood in front of his father, and his father raised a hand slowly, causing the white-haired teen to close his eyes in preparation of being struck. Jaune tensed from where he stood but was surprised by what came next.

A hand met Whitley's shoulder gently, and he cracked his eyes open to see his father looking at him with a bit of what he hoped was pride. A moment of silence followed, and Jacques spoke.

"I suppose that with this development, I can put a bit more faith into your abilities." With that the young teen's eyes widened as he asked his father a question.

"Does that mean I can continue attending Atlas." To his joy, the older man nodded. The older man removed his hand before checking his watch, and after glancing back to the stack of papers on his desk, sighed.

"I need to be returning to my work. It was nice meeting your acquaintance, and do visit more in the future." Whitley nodded and quickly left the room with his blonde friend in tow.

As they walked down the long empty corridor of the mansion again, Jaune noticed that the air about his friend had completely changed. Where as before, dread and uncertainty radiated from the youngest of the Schnee family. Now, however?

He seemed to exude a bit of hope.

* * *

**(A/N)**

**I have no idea how I managed to crank through over 5K words so fast, but before I knew it, it was damn near done and over with, and was a surprising feel-good transition chapter.**

**Next chapter, we find out something people have been waiting for that concerns Whitley. I'm sure a few of you will figure it out.**

**Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I'll be back again soon with another!**

**B.J.H.**


	13. Chapter 13-Reasons

**There's an A/N at the end of the chapter than explains a bit about Jacques character. If you're interested in my interpretation of the man, give it a read, otherwise, that's about it.**

**(Chapter 13)**

As the two teens reached the foyer of the Schnee mansion again, the atmosphere had lightened to a point where idle conversation was made. Whitley hadn't expected to convince his father to acquiesce to his desire of staying enrolled at the academy, or at the very least, as easily as he did.

As he looked to his friend, the younger teen was intensely grateful for his presence during the visit he was making to his family. As they stood there in the large empty open room, Whitley walked up the central stairs in the foyer with Jaune following behind him closely.

"Where are we going now?" The white-haired teen turned to the side as Jaune was now walking in step with him before responding.

"I'm heading to my room. I left something here as I believed it would be safer at home than with me at the academy as I wasn't using it." The blonde teen looked curious as he asked another question to the teen.

"What is it?" Whitley pondered the answer to the question as they continued to walk down the long corridor, before he thought of a satisfactory description.

"A gift." With that, he walked slightly faster, and with a small, yet smug smile on his face as Jaune side-eyed him. Minutes later, and the two teens reached Whitley's destination. With a twist of the doorknob, the white-haired teen's room was revealed to the blonde.

It was more spartan than what Jaune expected and wondered to himself if this was how Whitley wanted his room, or how Jacques Schnee wanted the room kept. He watched as the younger teen sat on the bed and let out an uncharacteristically loud and indulging sigh. Jaune watched the younger teen stare at the ceiling in thought before he made his way to the bookshelf and began scanning over the various titles in his friend's collection.

Eventually finding a book that would keep his attention for at least a few minutes, Jaune sat down in the chair next to the desk in his friend's room. After a few minutes of silence with the only sound being the blonde flipping to the next page. Whitley spoke out idly.

"I was really dreading coming back here you know." The older teen flipped to the next page as he answered.

"I got the feeling that may have been the case. I'm glad I was here to help you try and convince him. In the end, everything turned out okay." Quiet footsteps slowly made their way down the hall, unbeknownst to the two teens as they continued their conversation.

"Thank you, by the way." At this, Jaune looked up from the book to address his friend.

"What for?" Whitley looked to the older teen with a bit of incredulity at the question his fellow leader had asked him.

"Jaune, you helped me convince my father to let me stay at the academy. You came here with me, and I didn't even ask you to." The blonde put down the book before he responded to the younger teen.

"You may not have asked me with your words, but I could tell you needed help. So, I chose to help you out however I could."

Whitley just stared at the teen for a moment before bringing a hand to his face.

"Only you would make this seem like less than it is Jaune." The blonde shrugged his shoulders from where he sat before responding.

"I really didn't do anything all that special though Whitley, I would've done this for anyone from our squad if I thought it would help them." The youngest Schnee fixed a thankful smile on his face before another voice spoke out from the doorway.

"I'm glad to see you made a friend Whitley, and a rather good one in my opinion." The two teens' heads snapped to the doorway to see a woman with white hair holding a glass of some liquid.

"Mother…" That answered Jaune's unasked question as to who she was.

"Hello Dear." She walked into his room with the grace expected of a woman of her status. The drink she was nursing made a sound as the ice in the beverage clinked against the glass slightly. Whitley stared at the drink in her hand before schooling his emotions and picking up his end of the conversation.

"It's good to see you Mother, I hope you're well." She was about to sip her drink, but a brief look of negativity from her son caused her to pull the glass away from her lips as she set it down on the dresser she stood next to with a sigh.

Jaune was able to pick up on the significance of her putting the drink down when Whitley had a look of contentment. The older woman looked to the blonde before asking her son a question.

"Who is your friend?" Whitley stood from where he sat and gestured with his hand as he explained.

"This is Jaune, he's a friend of mine that I made at the academy. He's a fellow team leader like I am, and the co-leader of our squad." A look of understanding came upon her face as she turned to the blonde and spoke to him directly.

"It's a pleasure to meet one of Whitley's friends. My name is Willow Schnee." With that she gave him a nod, one that he returned as Willow turned back to her son to speak with him.

"Have you come back…to stay?" A hopeful look came upon her face as she traced the rim of her glass with a finger. Whitley looked pained as he shook his head answering her.

"No, I only came today because Father required my presence." Willow's face shifted to one of solemn understanding.

"Ah, of course. Though I shouldn't be surprised; why would you or your sisters ever want to visit home with what awaits you here?" The question was rhetorical, but Jaune could sense a problem about to show itself with how the mood was going. Whitley was silent for a moment before he spoke again.

"I try to visit at least once a month, I was preoccupied these last two weeks with my exams." He fixed her with an appraising look, and she flinched at his gaze as he spoke somewhat exhaustedly.

"I take it you've been drinking." A look of shame passed on the face of the older woman, and the white-haired teen sighed as he walked to where a painting of himself was, before taking it off the wall to reveal a safe. Entering the code, a ten-minute timer started to count down as he sat back down on his bed.

A moment of silence hung in the air before Willow answered her son.

"Y-yes."

"And how many will that one make?" The immediate questioning caused her to feel worse as she had to think hard about the number.

"Seven…" Jaune's diagnosis of the woman was that she was a depressed alcoholic, and it seemed as if all her children didn't just leave the nest, but fled from it. As another pregnant pause hung in the air, Whitley eventually spoke.

"…How long?" The teen's eyes were looking not at his mother but at his clenched fists in his lap.

"W-well…I believe I had my first drink at –" She went to continue but was cut off by her son.

"How long are you going to keep drowning yourself in alcohol." She looked downcast and Jaune began to feel slightly uncomfortable being in the presence of what was sure to be an emotional confrontation.

"…" She didn't answer, shame keeping her from answering her son. Seeing her silence, he continued.

"Until your liver fails you? Until it kills you? Until…" Whitley bit his lip as he paused before speaking again.

"Until you forget who I am?" Hearing her fifteen-year-old son say that broke Willow's heart, and she instinctively brought the drink from the dresser to her mouth, before she realized what she was doing in horror.

The drink slipped from her hands and fell to the ground, glass shattering upon impact. And she took a step back, then another, before she lost her footing and fell to the ground on her behind. Whitley and Jaune looked concerned for the woman, but then she did something her son didn't expect. Tears slowly began to run down her face, and she covered her face as she began to sob quietly.

The youngest of her children looked at her sadly, wanting to do something, but not knowing what. Suddenly, a hand had pushed him forwards from his back gently. He looked behind him seeing Jaune having moved to stand near the edge of the bed to urge him forwards. He looked uncertain, but slowly made his way forwards before kneeling and hugging Willow.

She stopped her sobbing in shock as her son held her, before returning the hug and remaining like that for a short while. Eventually, Whitley took a step back from her, before helping her to her feet.

"Mother…this has to stop." Whitley's comment was true, and she knew it, but she looked forlorn as she answered the young man.

"I don't know how…or if I have the strength to do it." Silence returned between the two, when the third occupant of the room spoke up.

"Why not get rehab?" Both heads of white hair snapped to him in surprise. His proposal held merit to the younger teen, who fixed his mother with a look.

"It wouldn't look good for the family if I went to a rehabilitation center…" Her answer made sense to the blonde, but then he spoke again.

"Why not get in home therapy? There are places that provide alcoholic rehab at home." At this, the woman seemed to shift uncomfortably again before she responded.

"That doesn't sound terrible…but I'm still not sure…" Whitley sent the blonde a look, begging him to somehow convince the woman to agree to get help. Jaune adopted a thinking pose as he began to talk again.

"I don't know everything about it, but I know that someone would come here daily to talk to you and help you develop healthier habits. They also set some kind of reward system to help you get rid of your addiction." At this, the younger teen deflated a bit. What reward could you give to a woman with the ability to buy anything? But then his friend spoke again, shocking him.

"Your reward could be Whitley coming to visit you more often." This seemed to break the woman from her stupor as she looked to her son's friend with shock and a bit of hope. Before the youngest Schnee could say anything, his mother looked to him with wide blue eyes.

"Would you really come home more for me Dear?" A moment passed before Whitley let out a breath and nodded to his mother as he answered.

"If you go through with the therapy and bring your alcoholism under control, then I suppose I could find myself visiting home on a more frequent basis." The woman looked to her son silently, before pulling out her scroll and leaving the room.

A hissing sound came from the safe, and Whitley remembered why he'd come to his room in the first place. Moving to the safe, he opened it and removed a fancy box from inside. Checking its contents, he nodded before calling Klein to inform him that they were ready to return to the academy.

* * *

The ride back to the academy was slower than before due to the traffic, and both teens sat in the back of the limousine across from each other. Neither of them had spoken since leaving, but Jaune could see something different in his friend. He didn't look haunted anymore, he seemed…free.

Suddenly, the box Whitley had retrieved was presented to him. He looked at it confusedly, but upon the younger teen pushing it towards him insistently, he took it. Unclasping the latches, he opened the box to reveal a twin of Whitley's gun. Gently lifting it from the box, he admired the craftmanship of the weapon, before placing it back in the box and held it towards his fellow leader.

"It's a beautiful weapon." The Schnee nodded before pushing the box back towards his friend as he responded.

"And now it's yours." Jaune looked like he was about to decline or argue, but Whitley was having none of it and held up his hand as he spoke.

"Don't bother trying to change my mind. It was sitting in my safe not doing anything for months. I'll feel satisfied knowing it's in good hands with someone that will use it to save lives. Besides," The white-haired teen grew a small smile as he continued.

"even giving you this, I don't think I'll ever be able to repay what you've done for me today." Whitley leaned back in his seat as he looked out the window.

"Jaune, you may not think what you did for me was incredible, but that isn't the case. You've given me the one thing I wasn't sure I'd ever have, and that's a chance to save my family. I've watched my mother despair for years behind a bottle, and then you manage to give her hope. And for that, I can't express my gratitude enough."

Jaune just looked at the teen with a smile as he responded.

"I still disagree with you Whitley," At this, the white-haired teen looked a bit annoyed with his friend, but then the blonde continued.

"I may have proposed therapy, but you were the one who gave her hope." The Schnee's face shifted to one of confusion as he waited for his friend to explain.

"After all, the only reward she needed to look for therapy was a chance to reconnect with you." And suddenly, Whitley's eyes widened at his friend's words. He thought silently to himself before a question stole him from his mind.

"Hey Whitley, if you don't mind me asking, why do you want to be a huntsman?" The pale teen met his friend's eyes before he leaned forward lacing his fingers together as he thought of where he should begin. Finally, he spoke.

"My…my family wasn't always like this Jaune. Years ago, my parents, my sisters, and myself used to all live in the mansion together. And while things weren't perfect, they were…normal, for us I suppose." The blonde nodded his head in understanding as he asked a question.

"So what changed." Whitley seemed to be remembering something when he spoke.

"My father always had high expectations for us, each of us. But for Winter, my oldest sister, these expectations were double for her since she was the heir. She spent hours learning etiquette, politics, and of the other kingdoms. She was taught how to dance, of the responsibility she had, and how to mingle with society's finest." Whitley looked slightly depressed as he continued.

"And she hated it. She hated the people she was forced to interact with, she hated feeling that her future had all but been written for her. But above all else, she despised being given all these burdens because of her last name. When she was seventeenth, she knew father was going to begin looking for suitors, so the day of her seventeenth birthday, she packed her things, renounced her status as the heir, and left. She hasn't come home since." Jaune sat quietly as his friend pressed on.

"Father wasn't always as…cold as he's made out to be. Before Winter left, there were even a few times I swore he smiled. But after she left for the military, he named Weiss his heir and began to change. He became more controlling, his compliments became scarcer, his criticisms harsher and more frequent, and his general attitude worsened by the day." Jaune decided he needed to ask a question for clarification.

"Was that when your mother began drinking?" He asked it gently, but was surprised when Whitley shook his head and began to talk again.

"Mother always drank, as it was expected of her during events and social gatherings, but once Winter left, she began drinking to cope with my eldest sister's departure. But a multitude of things began to pile onto her shoulders, and her coping mechanism became an addiction."

"Why didn't your father do anything about her drinking?" Whitley looked at his friends with a sad expression as he answered.

"My parents didn't come together because they loved each other, they were brought together by their parents to unite their families. The nature of their marriage aside, all I've ever wanted was for my family to be just that, _a family._ But Winter…she abandoned us. Or rather, she abandoned me." At that Jaune fixed him with a look of empathy, knowing at least part of his pain.

"Winter kept in contact with Weiss, often messaging her via scroll or through letters. I tried writing her too, but never got any replies from her. Naturally, I'd assumed something was wrong and asked Mother about it. She told me that my father had been intercepting Winter's letters back to me and confiscating them, to keep me from being influenced by her." Jaune watched as Whitley remembered something that hurt him as he spoke again.

"So that night, I did something unthinkable. I snuck into my father's study and rummaged through his desk trying to find the letters. That was when I found my mother had lied to me to spare my feelings. Because when Father had discovered me in his study that night, I learned that there were no letters. She never responded to anything I'd sent her. Granted, we never had the strongest of sibling bonds…but I still thought she at least cared." He took a breath to calm his nerves before he brought his emotions under control and spoke to the silent blonde across from him.

"The years got harder, and eventually, Weiss and I started to drift apart as well. One day, she asked Father if she could attend Beacon. And after weeks of begging for a chance to become a huntress, my father made her a deal. He gave her what should have been an impossible task, and told her that if she succeeded, she could go to Vale. She earned the scar over her eye from the test, but managed to accomplish her goal, and left." He paused briefly before continuing.

"I'm not sure what other conditions my father set for her, but I could see through her. She had no intention of ever returning home, until it was time for her to lead the SDC. My family in shambles at this point, I decided that I needed to get away from the Schnee mansion, but unlike my sisters, I didn't want to abandon my family. So, I made a deal with Father." At this Jaune's interest was piqued, and he motioned for Whitley to continue.

"My father is a greedy man, that's no secret, and he desires more influence for the Schnee family. I think he believes that he can reign in either Winter or Weiss. Since Winter is touted as a prodigy, if she becomes the next general, she'll have a seat on the council, and he'll try and get her to agree to whatever he wants support from them on. If Weiss was to return, she'd likely be groomed into becoming just like my father so that he'd have a suitable heir to the SDC, and a possible family member to run for the position of governor."

"So, what deal did you make with your dad?" Whitley looked rather proud of himself as he answered.

"I told him that it would more beneficial for me to attend the huntsman academy here in Atlas, but unlike Winter, I wouldn't be going into the military. With my huntsman training, I'd work to become the police commissioner of Atlas, earning the Schnee family another seat on the council. My father debated it for a few days, before he finally agreed. But since he pulled strings to get me admitted into the academy two years earlier, I also have to go home at least once a month to inform him of my progress."

Jaune thought about everything he was told, before Whitley concluded the explanation of his reasoning.

"You asked me why I want to be a huntsman. I suppose my answer is rather selfish. Helping those in need is noble, but that's just an added benefit to me. I just want a chance to bring my family back together, and this was all I could think of." Jaune's respect for the teen grew three times what it was, but before he could say anything, Whitley asked him a question in return.

"What about you? Why do you want to be a huntsman Jaune? And why at Atlas?" Jaune looked to the younger teen and with a sigh, began to recount his own tale.

* * *

The walk down the hall to the first-year dorms was quick, and before long, both teens were standing in front of the doors to their respective team dorms across the hall from each other. Whitley and Jaune met eyes, and the younger teen said one last thing before moving to enter the room.

"It's your story to tell, but I think you should tell my team what you told me back in the limo Jaune. I'm sure they'd like to know, and I'm positive none of them are going to hold your past against you." And with that, he opened the door, and walked in, leaving the blonde to think about what his younger friend had said.

Jaune scratched the back of his head, before entering his own dorm room to see that Flynt, Neon, and Penny had returned and were laughing about something when they noticed his arrival. He gave them a wave and informed them that he'd spent the day hanging out with Whitley but didn't delve into any details.

A few hours passed by and Jaune was stretching at the running track behind the fitness center. He put his earbuds in before he began to jog at a comfortable pace. Normally, the blonde would have met up with Marrow to improve on his parkour, but after being away from campus for much of the day, he was content to use the academy's track.

Minutes passed by, and once the teen completed his second go around the track, he stopped before lowering himself into a runner's stance. Jaune kept his eyes ahead of him as he prepared to take off, and a moment later, he was again in motion.

The blonde wasn't the fastest among the first years, but he had stamina in spades. As he ran at an impressive speed for a first year, Jaune could feel the sweat beginning to form on his skin as he exerted himself with a grin. Looking to his side, he was surprised to see a dark-skinned female shorter than himself, keeping pace with him perfectly. Their eyes met, and she fixed him with a smirk, before she began to up her speed slightly.

Not one to shy away from a challenge, Jaune pushed himself a bit before he managed to catch up to the runner, earning a raised eyebrow at his determination. They kept the pace for two laps, before they began to slow down. As they reached the starting points, the girl raised an arm to wipe the sweat from her brow as she looked to the teen that ran besides her.

The leader of team JCKP was panting heavily and sweating hard from where he stood still with his hands on his knees for support. After regaining the ability to speak, he looked to the tan girl, who now had a bottle of water. She had sucked down half its contents by the time the blonde had removed his earbuds to speak with her.

"Not bad kid, you kept up with me pretty well." The blonde nodded to acknowledge her praise as he brought his breathing under control to speak.

"T-thanks. I gotta say though, you're pretty fast. I had a hard time keeping up with you." At this, the tan runner smirked as she responded to him.

"Sorry to burst your bubble kid, but I wasn't going anywhere near my top speed. And if I'd been using my semblance? Forget about keeping up with me, you'd have a hard time keeping sight of me." Jaune imagined the scenario in his head but was unable to think on it long as the girl continued to speak.

"Anyway, name's Harriet. Who're you?" Jaune took a thinking pose as if trying to remember something before it occurred to him.

"Wait, are you Marrow's teammate?" the tan girl looked at him with surprise, before she squinted her eyes at him. She studied him up and down before she snapped her fingers and spoke.

"You're the kid Marrow and Elm won't shut up about; Jaune right?" Jaune rubbed his neck and nodded, embarrassed that the two older hunters spoke of him, and quite often apparently. The girl looked to her watch as it beeped, before she turned to leave the track.

"Well, duty calls. I only came over to mess with you, but you ended up being kind of interesting kid. If you see me at the track, feel free to try and match my pace." And with that, the tan woman activated her semblance, and with a glow of her eyes and sparks of lighting flickering around her, she was moving in speed towards her destination.

Jaune looked to where she'd disappeared towards before returning his focus to the athletic track he'd been jogging on before and continuing his cardio work out.

**(Three days later)**

After his daily early morning exercises and a refreshing shower in his dorm, Jaune checked the clock to see that it was 0722. He walked over to the box Whitley had given to him as a gift, before taking out the weapon inside and storing it on his right hip inside a holster given to him by the Schnee the next day.

He looked himself over in the mirror and felt proud of his appearance. He'd grown at least an inch since having left Beacon, and his body had changed from before too. He could confidently say he would never be called a noodle again. From the vigilance he observed with his workouts, the muscles on his body had become more prominent and defined.

He looked to his outfit and deflated a bit, however. He really needed to get a stylish outfit for himself, feeling a bit too mundane in comparison to the fashion his friends had.

He peered around the room to see that Flynt and Neon were just sitting on the edge of their bed's groggily, but that Penny wasn't present in the room. He looked to his friends with an obvious question on his face, before Neon answered his look.

"She said that she was going down to the lab to visit Mr. Polendina." Jaune sent a look of thanks to the girl as he went to leave the room, grabbing two of his breakfast snack bars on his way out. Unwrapping one to eat and pocketing the other, Jaune walked at a brisk pace towards the lab to visit his partner and her father.

With a hiss, the doors to the lab slid open, and the blonde walked inside as he deposited the now torn and empty snack wrapper into the waste bin. The sound of Pietro's robotic chair moving faintly grew louder before he turned the corner to see the old man he was looking for with a scroll in his hand, but no Penny present.

"Ah, Jaune! Perfect timing; I was actually just about to contact you to come and get your weapon." Jaune's eyes widened as he followed excitedly to where Pietro had a cloth over a table with the silhouette of something beneath it. As they stood on opposite ends of the table, Pietro noticed the blonde's firearm that was at his hip and smiled approvingly.

"I see you looked into a backup weapon, and it also deals with the lack of a ranged option that you would've had. But…" The older man couldn't help but feel as if the weapon looked a bit familiar, before he remembered where he believed he'd seen it before.

"Isn't that Whitley's revolver?" Jaune remembered being given the weapon by his friend and patted the firearm on his hip before responding.

"Yea, but this is actually the twin of his weapon." Pietro looked to the boy in surprise, before his perpetual smile returned.

"I see. Well then, would you like to do the honors?" Pietro held a hand out to the table with the cloth. Jaune nodded to the man, before he slowly reached his hand out and grasped the covering, before he tugged it away swiftly to reveal his weapon.

Before him lay a sword inside a sheath, silver being the main color with blue for the accents. If enough time was spent looking at the weapon's shape, once could see the inspiration it bore from Crocea Mors, but the inspiration was where it ended. The weapon bore the telltale signs of mechashift properties as it had a more modern feel to it.

Gently, he picked up the weapon before he slid the sheath onto his arm, and with the click of a button, the sheath turned into a shield. Releasing the sword from its resting place, the weapon made a lovely sound as it exited the shield, the ringing of metal seeming to have muted all other sound for a few moments.

He walked away from the older man to stand in the center of a large open space. He took a few practice swings, before pretending to block enemy attacks and counter swiftly. The weight felt satisfying to the blonde, and he nodded happily.

"Why don't you re-sheath the sword, channel your aura into it, and slide your thumb down a bit where its resting." Jaune took a breath as he did so and what happened next surprised him a bit. He watched as the sheath his sword was contained in, extended outwards a bit and locked the blade in place, having turned the blade and the shield into one weapon; a great sword.

He held it in front of himself and took a practice swing. Having forgot to stop channeling his aura, the force of his swing went well beyond his blade, and the wind generated caused a stack of packets to fall from where they were stationed. The older man gave a chuckle at the embarrassed and apologizing look that the younger man sent him, before signaling him to continue.

Jaune looked down to the flat of the blade and saw a set of vents near the sword's edge. While the great sword was an addition of Pietro's design, he suspected he knew what the vents were for. With a bit of aura and the flick of a switch, the vents opened, and metal formed a dome on both the face sides of the weapon. Finally, the handle extended backwards, and in Jaune's hands was his lance, although, slightly different.

He found that it still was able to raise the canopy of the weapon to be an umbrella for a landing strategy, but there felt like there was something more. From his side, Pietro cleared his throat and spoke to the teen.

"I added one last function to your weapon. This one is aura activated, so you'll need to get used to it. Focus your aura into whatever hand if further up on the weapon and see what happens."

Jaune did so and was startled when the canopy of the weapon rotated rapidly. He looked down to his weapon in awe, admiring the thought that his partner's father must have put into creating it. As he looked over the weapon, Pietro decided to explain a bit about the weapon.

"Now, when we were discussing the design of the weapon, you only brought up the shield sheath/sword combination, and the lance/umbrella. The reason I added the great sword as a mode for you was because I wanted you to still be able to use this weapon with whatever ranged option you investigated. Now, whenever you're in a fight, you'll have an option for every range, and it should feel a little more natural in your hands." The blonde remembered something about his old weapon and asked the older man.

"What about the dust?" The older man adopted a lecturer's pose as he motioned for Jaune to hand him the weapon. Once in his hands, he pointed to the center and edges of the shield and unscrewed the pommel as he explained.

"The dust is contained in both of the weapons now. The shield stores dust in the center of itself as well as in the edges, and the sword stores dust in the hilt."

As the teen looked into the handle, he could see a clear division inside, one side glowing with the familiar shade of purple unique to gravity dust, while the other was empty. He looked to Pietro, who nodded his head and began to explain.

"I know that as you become more comfortable with the weapon, or as you look into widening the scope of abilities at your disposal, that you'll probably think about using a second type of dust. I designed your weapon so that when you've decided what type of dust you'd like to incorporate; it'll be as simple as loading it into your weapon."

The blonde stood silently as he admired the weapon, and once it was handed back to him, he let it hang at his side from his left hip. The two males stood in silence, and just as Jaune was about to beginning thanking the inventor, Pietro raised his hand.

"Before you begin trying to thank me, let me say this. Thank you Jaune." The blonde looked to the older man confusedly, who took his glasses off to clean them quickly before putting them back on as he spoke.

"Why are you thanking me Mr. Polendina?" The older man got a faraway look in his eyes as he thought about something before answering him.

"Penny informed me that you're aware of her being an artificial human. Yet, you didn't treat her any differently than the rest of your squad. You're giving her a chance to live as a human, and I'm grateful to you for it. So, I feel that putting my heart and soul into making you the best weapon I could was the only way I could begin to repay you."

The blonde just smiled in response to the older man's words before replying.

"Still, thank you Sir." The older man chuckled before responding.

"Don't thank me my boy, go out and save lives. That's enough for me." The two stood in silence, before Jaune remembered something. He looked to Pietro before asking him a question.

"Do you know where Penny is by any chance? That's actually the reason I came here." The dark-skinned man nodded as he informed the boy of where she went.

"You actually just missed her. She was here maybe less than five minutes before you arrived."

"Do you know where she's going?" The older man sighed as he stroked his beard before speaking.

"The general is heading to Vale today. Penny caught wind of this, and since she'd been begging to visit somewhere outside Atlas or Mantle, I asked James to take her with him so that she could explore a bit." Jaune's eyes widened, and he made for the exit quickly to try and meet her at the bullhead docks. As he was about to open the door, Pietro called out to him one last time.

"If you're hoping to go with her, tell James that it'd be a personal favor to me!" With that, the boy nodded and made for the bullhead docks.

Five minutes of running had put the blonde teen at the unusually busy bullhead docks, and he spotted the girl he was looking for walking next to the general with a cheery expression on her face. He called out to her as he ran over.

"Penny!" The girl turned around and her eyes brightened upon seeing her partner. She skipped over to him as he caught up, Ironwood standing slightly off to the side.

"Good morning Partner, how are you?" The blonde smiled in response to her as he spoke.

"I'm great Penny, what about you?" He was given a glowing smile as she answered him with a grin.

"I'm wonderful! Thanks for asking." The blonde glanced at the general for a moment before he spoke to his partner again.

"Hey, you're heading to Vale with the general today right? Would you like for me to tag along with you? I stayed in Vale for a while before Beacon, so I know the area pretty well." Penny's eyes widened before she turned to face the general.

"Can Jaune accompany me to Vale Mr. Ironwood, please?" If seeing the girl giving him a hopeful set of puppy dog eyes had any effect, he didn't show it. But just as he was about to speak, the blonde took his chance to speak again.

"Mr. Polendina said that it'd be a personal favor to him if you took me along as well."

James massaged his temples after hearing that, before taking a deep breath and walking towards the bullhead.

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt for Ms. Polendina to have a chaperone." Though he muttered it, it was heard perfectly by the two teens, and they followed him up the ramp spirits high, unable to see the exasperated smile on the disciplined man's face.

* * *

**(A/N)**

**Sup guys! Looks like another chapter basically wrote itself for me, and I gotta say, It was a nice write.**

**Next chapter though...heh, I can't wait to write it.**

**So since I don't have a lot to say in this note, I'm gonna go ahead and elaborate on what seems to be a shared wonder about Jacques character.**

**In the animation, Jacques is a greedy bad guy. Here, he is still greedy, he isn't someone people like to deal with, but he isn't unreasonable. He is still critical and demanding, but he sees what Whitley proposed as a worthy investment. Whitley gets to do what he wants, and Jacques gets a possible future seat on the council for his family, a mutually beneficial agreement, except with the possibility for him to get much more from the deal, which he would like.**

**He isn't per say approving of Whitley undergoing huntsman training, and that's because of the dangers that come with that lifestyle. If he dies, he loses a possible heir or seat on the council, if he lives, Whitley could try and leave the family. The reason he had Whitley convince him in the last chapter was because he wanted to make sure his son could still negotiate, and see what he would do when backed into a "corner."**

**Maybe somewhere deep down, there is still hope for Jacques, maybe not. Who knows?**

**Also, I can't guarantee that updates will always be as quick as they have been the last week, I ran into an unexpected burst of motivation, but I'm gonna keep trying.**

**See ya next time,**

**B.J.H.**


	14. Chapter 14-Guess Who's Back

**(Chapter 14)**

Being the general of the Atlesian military came with certain luxuries. much like his specialists, he had his own personal transports; be it by land, air, or water. His personal bullhead was larger than a standard passenger craft, having a second floor that acted as the man's personal quarters.

Two hours into the flight, the general's two students had slowly begun to chat less and less until eventually, the two of them sat in content silence next to each other. As the transport took them to Vale, he studied both teens silently. One was the creation and daughter of undoubtedly one of the kingdom's greatest mind, and the other a young man who was working so valiantly to become a huntsman.

As he looked them over, he noticed the new weapons at his hips, taking special interest in the firearm. He cleared his throat, grabbing the attention of the teens from where they sat.

"New arsenal?" Jaune looked surprised that the general noticed, before he smiled and patted the weapons on his hip.

"Yea, Penny's dad finished my weapon right before I came looking for her. And the gun is from Whitley." The older man raised an eyebrow at the younger man before he asked him a question.

"He bought it for you?" The blonde shook his head in response before clarifying as Penny sat in silence listening to the two talk.

"It was his. He wasn't using it and said that he wanted me to use it instead. Worked out perfectly since my new weapon doesn't have a ranged function." James looked at the teen silently for a few moments before he spoke.

"Would you mind if I took a look at your firearm?" The request surprised Jaune, but he nodded before handing the weapon carefully to the general. Taking it into his hands, he examined the weapon from all angles. After a few moments of appreciating the weapons craftmanship, he looked back to the younger man before handing it back to him.

"Do you know how to fight with it?" The blonde rubbed his neck before he explained to the general.

"I've went to the range twice since Whitley gave it to me, and my accuracy needs some work, but I think I'm making my way there." The older man smirked before he exploded into movement.

Jaune's danger senses were screaming at him as the general engaged him in close quarters combat, causing him to dodge clumsily due to the, though still larger than normal, limited space of the bullhead. He realized that the headmaster was trying to make him understand something but didn't have the time to discern what.

A dodge later, the blonde was a second late, and the general swept his legs out from under him before spinning to grab hold of the teen's arm, keeping him from landing on the metal floor of the bullhead. The two's eyes met, and the blonde saw mirth written on the general's face before the disciplined man pulled him up to his feet and took a step back to explain.

"Just because a weapon is a firearm, doesn't mean its application in battle is limited to being at range. While you might have a main weapon, your backup weapon is just as important. Especially if it's your only ranged option. Learning how to fight with it, be it in hand to hand or a distance, will determine if you're using it to its fullest potential."

The younger man nodded to the general, and the older man looked down to his watch and saw that their flight had a few more hours, before turning to the younger man and clearing his throat.

"Since our flight is only a third of the way through, I could teach you some forms and methodologies to fighting with firearms, if you'd like." Jaune's eyes bugged out of his head as the prospect of learning from the general and headmaster himself presented itself, for however brief the lesson would be.

"A-Absolutely!" The older man chuckled at the enthusiasm the younger man was showing.

"Then let's begin. As you get more accurate with your gun, you'll be effective at greater distances, but once an opponent has come within a certain range, taking shots can be dangerous." The general reached into his coat with both hands to retrieve his twin revolvers, pressing the button behind the chamber on each gun and flicking them to the side, revealing the cylinders.

"My style lets me transition from fighting at a distance to hand to hand whenever I need to, and my revolvers, Due Process, use different types of ammunition. The White gun fires a shot similar to the weapons wielded by the Atlesian knights, and the second trigger on it fires a dust-based explosive round. The other chambers gravity dust, which I use to propel myself towards or away from an enemy."

Jaune took a second to admire the design of the general's weapons before the stored Fair Trial back into its hip holster hidden under his coat. He reversed his grip on one of the guns of Due Process so that he was holding the handle towards the blonde.

He motioned for the younger man to mimic his stance, and once he did, the headmaster observed his form before adjusting the positioning of his arms and lowering the teen's stance via pushing down on his shoulders. Once Jaune was in a proper stance, the general began to continue his lecture.

"I prefer to keep my enemies at a distance that allows for me to adjust to them as a threat, which is typically around twenty-five meters. If I don't want them to come any closer, then I keep that distance between us or increase it. If I want to close that distance, I either let them approach, or I chase them down with my black gun."

The blonde nodded as he began to mimic the forms that the disciplined man went through while he spoke.

"I use a very militant style of C.Q.C. that I've adjusted to fit me personally. Since you and your friends are close with team WICK, I assume you've seen how Soleil battles in with her guns up close. She uses a fighting style that if I'm correct was born in Mistral; it incorporates palm thrusts, punches, kicks and chops. Since she has a very limited number of shots in her cylinder, Soleil had to develop hand-to-hand skills so that she wouldn't be overwhelmed in the field."

A bit of time passed and as Jaune listened, he had his form adjusted at points by the general. Seeing that the blonde was trying earnestly to learn and memorize everything from his crash course, the general decided to teach Jaune some grappling techniques that he could use with his gun to apprehend an enemy or disarm them.

James gave the leader of team JCKP directions to keep going through the motions until he memorized them and could follow through with the correct motions not as clumsily as he currently was. The disciplined man sat down on the opposite end of the bullhead, observing the younger man and making comments to correct his form so that the blonde wouldn't develop any flaws in his form.

Penny continued to sit silently as she watched the two interact with a dynamic that surprised her slightly, before she began to think to herself, having remembered a conversation she had with her father concerning Jaune's choice in metal for his weapon. A short while later and the general announced that he'd be retiring to his personal quarters for the remainder of the flight.

Penny waited until the headmaster left before grabbing her partner's attention.

"Partner?" Without looking to her, the blonde answered her while continuing to go through the forms he'd been shown with focus.

"What's up Penny?"

"Why did you want your weapon to be made with a non-ferrous metal?" The taller teen faltered in his movements slightly before he sighed and sat down next to the girl. He stayed silent for a few moments before finally beginning to speak.

"…My ex-partner back at Beacon was Pyrrha, Pyrrha Nikos. And her semblance is polarity. That combined with her skill for combat makes her really hard to beat in a fight. The Vytal Tournament is in May, and by then, I need to be able to face her as an equal and beat her as an opponent."

From the side of him, Penny sat silently before her face shifted to one she would take whenever she was learning about something. After a few moments of silence, she looked to him before she spoke.

"Pyrrha Nikos, trained at Sanctum Academy and won the Mistral Regional Tournament four years in a row, setting a new record and earning the title "Invincible Girl", as well as earning a mascot sponsorship from Pumpkin Pete's. She is six feet tall with a red colored aura, and her weapons are Miló and Akoúo̱. She is seventeen years of age, human, and hails from the city of Argus." She turned to him before she spoke again.

"That Pyrrha?" Jaune just dumbly nodded before a thought crossed his mind.

"Hey, Penny? How do you know all that?" The girl looked to the side and began to innocently squirm in her seat. Jaune stared at her for a moment longer.

"Did you…access Beacon's files?" The ginger looked at him with the expression of a child caught with a hand in the cookie jar, before she began to poke her fingers together as she answered the blonde.

"…I may have taken a peek…" Jaune's brought a hand to his face at the girl's actions, before a thought entered his mind.

"Hey Penny? You weren't detected in their systems or anything, were you?" The girl immediately shook her head as she answered her partner.

"No need to worry there Partner, I took various safety measures to ensure that I'd leave no traces of my presence behind. Besides, in comparison to Atlas, their cyber security is archaic." Jaune put held his chin in thought before he began to ask a request of his partner.

"Hey Penny, could you possibly give me some info on some of my other ex-friends?" The girl looked at him, slightly surprised that he wasn't mad, before she smiled and nodded her head.

"Can do Partner! I'll need names, but what are you trying to find out?"

Jaune thought for a moment before replying to the ginger haired girl.

"I don't need things like measurements or the like, but family history and maybe any thing that they might have done wrong?" The girl nodded before signaling for him to continue.

"First…"

* * *

The flight to Vale was finally coming to a close. After hours of being stuck in a flying metal box, the ramp down to the bullhead docks that would lead to the city began to lower. The general and his guard detail stepped out first, followed by Penny. Jaune took a deep breath, preparing himself to once again enter the urban jungle that was Vale.

Thoughts and spirit collected. Jaune slowly walked down the ramp before his boot hit the solid ground of the dock and he looked around to see his surroundings. The dock hadn't changed much in his time away, but there was now a noodle stand near the entrance being run by an older man. He breathed in a breath of fresh air as he and his partner followed the general to a car that had been waiting for them.

The car ride was short, the traffic in Vale during the afternoon being rather tame. Once the car parked, the group exited the vehicle, and Jaune's eyes widened as he was greeted with the sight of one of the priciest hotels in the city. Following the smirking general dumbly, the group entered the lobby, and after being welcomed, were given keys to their rooms.

The general's guards were to be in the suite connected to James, and the students would share a room separately since they were on the same team and bunked together already.

After being given the key to their luxurious hotel room, Penny anxiously questioned the older man.

"Are we okay to go Mr. Ironwood?" James looked at the two before he sighed and answered the excited ginger.

"Yes Polendina, you two are free to go and explore now. Try to keep a low profile. And if happen upon anything major, contact me, then the police. Besides that, remember that we'll be staying here for the remainder of the weekend. So, you have the remainder of today, tomorrow, and until 1400 on Sunday to enjoy your time here."

Necessary information given; the general entered to his suite to prepare for the meeting he had with Ozpin. The ginger girl practically dragged her partner out of the hotel lobby and onto the streets of Vale. From there he began to lead her to and from various places around the town while they chatted along the tour.

"Tell me Jaune, how are you so familiar with Vale?" The blonde smiled as he answered his partner who was skipping to his side.

"When I left home to go to a huntsman academy, I left a lot earlier than right before the semester started. I actually left home around three months before my first day at Beacon. When I got to Vale, the first thing I did was look for a job. Luckily enough, I got a job at a hotel and in exchange for working I got a room and minor pay. But whenever I wasn't sleeping or working, I was exploring Vale, trying to see every inch of a big city like how I always wanted to."

The girl next to him smiled before continuing to chat as they rounded a corner, and as Jaune looked up for what he should next show her, his eyes widened as he saw a group across the street that he recognized all too well.

He told Penny to follow him quietly, and the two snuck across the street and blended in the crowd as they approached the blonde's target. As they got closer, still unnoticed, the two could now hear the group's conversation as they peered into a window.

"…you sure? I don't think that would look good on me."

"Why don't we go inside, and you can try it on?" Having successfully snuck behind the group, Jaune flashed a smile to his partner before he cleared his throat loudly, grabbing the attention of the group, causing them to turn around. As they met eyes with the blonde, the group was silent before he was assaulted by a shorter bunny eared girl and her friends.

"JAUNE!" The group's exclamation made the boy smile in response as he was the epicenter of a group hug that had been months overdue.

Team CFVY and Cardin separated from the boy with wide smiles on their faces before Velvet began to pout.

"What's wrong Velv?" The girl in question pointed her nose away from him before Yatsuhashi explained the reason for her being upset.

"You haven't called any of us in weeks. We were beginning to worry. Velvet and Cardin especially, but he probably won't admit it."

"Hey!" Everyone shared a laugh at the tall red-head's expense before Coco strode forwards and studied Jaune up and down before nodding her head.

"Well, you showed up at the perfect time. Now we can finally find you some new threads to give you some style. No offense." The blonde shrugged as he looked to the coffee-colored fashionista.

"Some taken." Everyone laughed at this, before Jaune took a step away from the group to introduce his Partner.

"Alright, before anything else, I have someone I want to introduce to you all. Penny these are my friends at Beacon, guys, this is my partner at Atlas, Penny." The ginger skipped forward with a bright smile on her face as she waved to the group.

"Sal-u-tations! I'm Penny, it's a pleasure to finally meet you all!" The positivity practically beaming from the girl was infectious and soon the girl was swallowed up in attention from the blonde's friends as they made their way to a clothing store.

Upon entry, the leader of team CFVY dragged the tall blonde to a mirror before pulling out a tailor's body ruler from her purse before using it to take the boy's measurements. After getting the numbers, she went to the front and presented his measurements to the man behind the register, asking if there was anything in stock that matched the blonde's numbers.

The man thought for a moment, before he disappeared to the back for a few moments. He poked his head out to observe the teen's looks, before nodding and disappearing again. The older man returned with bags and a box concealing the contents inside, before he handed them to the blonde and directed him towards the fitting room.

The blonde's partner and his friends attending Beacon waited patiently for the teen to finish putting on his new clothes, before the sound of a dressing curtain sliding to the side drew their attention. All eyes were on Jaune as they appreciated his new look.

He was wearing slightly baggy black pants that tucked into the black and white boots he wore. Since this was a huntsman quality tailor shop, it came as no surprise that there was gravity dust in the soles of his footwear.

On his torso he wore a black undershirt beneath a white shirt with a split down in the center in the shape of a sword blade. Above his overshirt he wore an open, hooded light coat with quarter sleeves that was the same color blue as his eyes on the sides with black and white trim edges, and light metal around the back waist.

He also had blue suspenders with gold and silver buckles that hung from his side, as he was given explicit instructions from the older man not to wear the suspenders unless he was only in his undershirt. Topping off his look was the sword and revolver that hung from side of his hip, as well as the black fingerless gloves that covered his hands.

The older man nodded in satisfaction of the boy's outfit, and the group of teens all voiced their approval of their friend's new look. The fitter also included two sleeveless and two long sleeve variations of the white overshirt for the boy free of charge. After paying with the rather hefty price with his student lien card, the group left to head towards an armorer.

As they stood outside, Jaune remembered the shop with a bit of nostalgia, having come to this shop to equip himself with some cheap armor for Beacon. He shook the memories away as he opened the door and led the group inside. The scent of steam, heat, and metal assaulted the group as they entered the shop, accompanied by the sound of metal striking metal.

Jaune walked up to the counter before dinging the bell that sat on the counter twice. The sound of striking metal ceased, before the group heard footsteps and coughs. The armorer was a short man, though incredibly muscular, with a beard and thick goggles. His tanned skin was covered in metal dust much like his apron.

Upon seeing his customers, his eyes brightened behind his goggles which he proceeded to remove.

"Jaune! How are you Sonny?" The man had a heavy accent, but it wasn't one that anyone present, save for possibly Penny, could identify. The blonde shook the older craftsman's hand firmly as he replied.

"Never better." The look in his eye as he said it didn't go unnoticed by the man, and he proceeded to let out a bellowing laugh, before looking at the group of friends behind him.

"They with you?" At the blonde's head nod, the short man smiled before he looked the teen up and down.

"What brings you back to me shop Sonny?" The blonde looked down to his outfit before he thought about something and answered.

"I need some new armor to go with my huntsman outfit. Something for my arms and legs, something that'll complete the look and add a little protection, but I don't want to restrict movement or go to heavy." The older man nodded as he thought about what he might have for the boy, before he voiced another question.

"Anything for your chest?" The blonde shook his head negatively before he responded.

"No sir, My aura pool is pretty large, and I do have a shield, so instead of adding all that weight, I want to focus on my agility." The man looked the blonde over once more before he left for the back.

"You've been here before Jauney boy?" Cardin's question seemed to be shared by the group.

"Yea, right before Beacon. Since I didn't know what I'd be up against, I wanted something to protect me in case I ended up taking a hit." The group nodded, before Coco thought about how he'd worded his answer and blanched.

"Jaune…did you not have aura during the initiation exam?" The rest of the group's eyes widened as they turned to look at the boy incredulously. The blonde just rubbed the back of his neck embarrassedly as he answered her.

"I did about a third of the way into it." Everyone was about to bombard him with questions before a few coughs from the backroom and approaching footsteps interrupted them.

The armorer returned and placed two large boxes on the counter for the teen to examine. Jaune took the lids off both the boxes before looking at the armor and smiling a bit. He began putting the armor on, and before long, was complete in his actions and turned to face the group, getting a whistle from Coco and a thumbs up from his partner.

The metal armor on his legs protected him from his knees down to the toe of his boots and was silver in color except for at the shin, which was a blue that matched his outfit. The back of his knee was left unarmored so that he wouldn't lose any range of movement and surprisingly wasn't too heavy. Above that he had gray leather protecting each thigh.

For his upper body, he was wearing matching silver/blue vambraces on either arm that stopped a bit below his elbow, and on his shoulders, identical silver guards that went down to slightly above the bend in his arm. All in all, Jaune finally had the look of a proper huntsman.

The teen went to pay the armorer, and with his shopping finally done, he and his friends left the shop. The group was debating what to do, when Jaune had a thought.

"Hey guys, there's one more thing I want to do, and then maybe we could grab lunch?" Team CFVY plus Cardin looked between each other before they shrugged their shoulders.

* * *

'_So, lemme get this straight. You rode a damn elder strix into a battlefield where your squad had been fighting a sphinx, and a horde of Grimm?' _Fox's mental question was heard by the group, which surprised Penny as she had never experienced his semblance before.

Jaune just continued eating his food as he nodded to the dark-skinned teen, getting wide-eyed looks as he recounted the tale of his midterm exams. The group continued to eat, and Jaune looked towards the window of the restaurant and saw his reflection and admired his new hairstyle.

Before they came to eat, the blonde had wanted to visit a salon. The hair stylist smiled to him when he told her he'd like to clean up his long, messy mop of hair. She trimmed away his split ends and upon request, gave the boy a hair tie. Jaune had pulled his hair through the tie and was now confidently sporting a ponytail to finish off his transformation.

Velvet grabbed the blonde's attention by waving her hand in front of his face as she held her camera in her other hand.

"Remnant to Jaune? Let me see your scroll." The boy dumbly took it out before handing it to the rabbit faunus. Velvet proceeded to take a cord from her bag and connect it from the camera to Jaune's scroll. Jaune watched as a transfer bar popped up on the screen of his device and realized what she was doing.

"Is that…?" The girl smirked to him as she replied.

"This is what we've gotten so far. Since you're here, might as well give you what we have." The blonde nodded and waited for the bar to fill completely before the scroll was handed back to him.

"So Jaune, have you found a sponsor yet?" Yatsuhashi's question surprised the teen, and he furrowed his brow as he replied.

"Sponsor?" The gentle giant began to explain it to his blonde friend.

"Sponsors are licensed or retired huntsmen and huntresses that train teams for the Vytal Tournament. Come time for the festival, the sponsors are introduced so that the crowd knows which team was trained by who." The blonde processed the information, making sure to file it away and possibly look into finding a sponsor for his team.

"What about the second semester, are you going to participate in the Vytal Exchange Program?" The blonde frowned as he thought about the question, this time knowing about what they were talking about.

The exchange program allowed students from any of the other three academies to transfer to the host kingdom's academy at any point in the second semester to study there until the Vytal Festival took place. Jaune thought about it for a moment before he answered hesitantly.

"I'm not sure yet…me and my squad need to talk it over and see what we want to do." The Beacon students nodded to their friend, understanding his reluctance.

The rest of the meal was uneventful but no less pleasant, and before long, team CFVY and Cardin stood across from Jaune and his partner.

"It was good seeing all of you guys." Jaune's friends smiled and surrounded him with a group hug once more. After they separated, Coco spoke out to her younger friend.

"Hey. Don't be a stranger now kid, drop by with the rest of your team sometime. I need to thank the one responsible for keeping an eye on you." A round of laughs later, and the two groups went their separate ways down the sidewalk.

Belly full, a new look, and having gotten to visit with his friends, the blonde's mood was an all time high. As they neared the corner, they had to hop out of the way as a blonde monkey faunus nearly trampled them as he was being chased by what seemed to be some form of authority. The two looked to each other and shrugged before they turned to continue walking, and Penny was knocked to the ground by a figure in white.

Jaune was startled by his partner's fall, but soon his expression shifted from one of shock to one of pique as he drunk in the form of the one who knocked his partner over. Behind him, the blonde faunus leaped to the safety of the rooftops and made his escape.

"No, he got away!" As the girl's friends arrived, they observed how Weiss had propped herself up atop what she'd knocked over, or rather who, and the tall blonde who looked rather irritated by her presence.

From the side, Yang grabbed her partner's attention.

"Uhhhh, Weiss?" The girl looked to her teammate, before a new voice spoke out from where it stood.

"Do you mind not using my friend as an armrest." The heiress heard the words, causing her to look down and be greeted by a short ginger waving to her from her position under her. The Schnee stumbled back in surprise at the close proximity she had with the girl.

The tall blonde held out a hand to the ginger and pulled her to her feet, checking her over for any injuries before facing some people he hadn't wanted to see again so soon.

The heiress cleared her throat before she began to speak.

"I apologize for running into you. I was absorbed with trying to observe that filthy faunus stowaway." Jaune narrowed his eyes at the girl and noted that Blake also fixed the girl with an unseen glare. The members of team RWBY eyed the two, most of their attention falling to the blonde they all felt was familiar but couldn't place where.

"Your apology is accepted! My name is Penny, it's a pleasure to meet you." Even when discontent with someone, the girl had a propensity for always being polite. The girls nodded in acknowledgement before introducing themselves.

"Hi Penny, I'm Ruby."

"I'm Weiss."

"Blake"

"…" The blonde bombshell of team RWBY was staring at Jaune intently as if trying to figure something out before her partner smacked her in the side.

"Oh, I'm Yang." The android girl nodded before she responded to their introductions.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." The heiress made a face as she spoke up.

"You already said that." Penny looked to be in thought before she nodded her head and replied to the girl.

"So I did!" The group of girls looked between themselves before Weiss tried to lead them away.

"Well, sorry for running into you!" But before they could continue their retreat, Penny said something that froze the girls on the spot.

"Where to next Jaune?" The girls swung around on their heels to face the two once more, this time all of their focus being on the tall blonde. His new outfit, his new haircut, his posture, his attitude, his musculature; so many things about the blonde were different, though only Blake picked up on his subtler changes.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Jaune Arc." The blonde adopted a look of apathy as he yawned before replying to the shorter girl.

"Actually, it's just Jaune now." The meaning of what he said wasn't lost on the group, but the girls weren't all too affected, save for Ruby and Blake, who realized what he meant and felt a pang of guilt for what they'd had a part in, regardless of however small.

"Oh well Vomit Boy, you shouldn't have done it in the first place." Jaune lazily turned his gaze over to the brawler before he began to respond.

"So what you're saying is that because I did something wrong, I deserve to suffer the consequences?" Yang nodded and was backed up by an upturned nose from Weiss. Jaune smirked at the two as he continued speaking.

"Then why haven't you turned yourself in Yang?" The blonde brawler's face turned to one of confusion as she voiced her thoughts.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about how you went to an underground club and caused thousands of lien in property damage alongside assaulting the owner and his staff." The girl's eyes widened before they narrowed with a growl. Before she could begin to speak, the blonde continued speaking.

"You weren't the police, and they hadn't done anything officially illegal, nor where you a licensed huntsman. You just strolled right into to the bar and got upset when they wouldn't tell you what you wanted." Yang's fists were clenched and her eyes were flashing red, wanting nothing more to unleash herself on the boy.

The leader of team JCKP turned his finger to Ruby, who looked rather shocked, both at her sister's actions and at the declaration of her own misdeed.

"You had a run in with Torchwick and some of his goons at a dust shop. Instead of calling for help you decided to fight them all on your own. Did you know that none of his lackeys had aura? You beat them all, but you sent two of them to the ICU in critical condition." The gothic dressed girl looked at her former friend in horror as he delivered this revelation.

Jaune's finger drifted to the heiress and his face shifted to one of pure contempt as he spoke. "Weiss, you actually haven't done anything illegal yet," the white-haired girl looked rather smug, before Jaune said something that really caught her off guard.

"but that doesn't mean you aren't cruel. You left your younger brother all alone, with _them_. Not to mention, you are incredibly discriminatory against the faunus." Weiss's incredulous look was extremely satisfying, and finally his finger found its way to pointing at Blake, who looked extremely uncomfortable by this point. He didn't say anything for a few moments, tension building as he finally spoke.

"But out of everyone here, myself included, Blake has broken more laws than all of us, combined." All the girls turned to the mysterious beauty, who by now was beginning to pale at the possibility of what Jaune might know. The leader of JCKP paused for another moment, observing the curious, yet vexed faces of Yang and Weiss before he spoke again.

"You still haven't told them, have you." The black-haired girl defiantly tried to keep her composure as the blonde glanced up to her bow, something that didn't go unnoticed by the girl, and the color drained from her face as she prayed he wouldn't reveal her secret.

Jaune debated delivering that bit of knowledge before he decided to let the girl's team interrogate her for answers later but decided to make a comment instead.

"You know Blake, it's incredible that no one has confronted you on who you are because of your last name. It holds quite a bit of weight." Blake was terrified. Jaune knew things about her she would have preferred to keep hidden, things she hadn't talked to her friends about yet.

The blonde's face shifted to one of empathy as he spoke to the hidden faunus of team RWBY.

"I really hope that when your past comes to light Blake, that they give you the chance I didn't get." With that he turned away from them all to gather his thoughts before he spoke again.

"All of you are hypocrites. I may have done something bad, but at least my crime didn't hurt anyone. None of you had any right to judge me after what you've done, but you did, and because of that I almost lost my dream."

The blonde smiled at his partner, who beamed back to him, before he spoke to the members of team RWBY again.

"And I couldn't be any happier." The girls all looked to him confused as she smiled thinking about his friends back in Atlas.

"I made friends, real friends who didn't care about what I did before I met them. I got to meet Penny and get a fresh start. So, even though you all caused me grief; thank you." The blonde turned away from them, ignoring the indignant yells from the heiress and the brawler as he and his partner returned to their hotel.

* * *

As they reached their room, Jaune collapsed on his bed exhaustedly. Penny patted his back gently before sitting down on her own bed. Jaune turned over on his bed with a tired smile on his face as he looked to his partner and spoke.

"Hey Penny?" The ginger android looked to him and responded.

"Yes Jaune?"

"Thank you." This was another common occurrence between them, where Jaune would thank his partner out of nowhere, and while it confused the girl initially, she learned to accept it rather quickly and wholeheartedly, loving when her partner was in a good mood.

The two stayed in silence before Jaune realized he forgot something and shot up from the bed.

"Shit! I need to let everyone know we won't be back for a few days." The girl giggled at her partner's panic before she responded to him.

"No need to worry partner, I already took the chance earlier during our tour of Vale to send them both a message saying we'd be gone, and when we'd be back." The blonde let out a sigh of relief as he nodded to the girl, before thinking of something for the two of them to do.

Jaune looked to the T.V. in the room before he had an idea.

"Hey Penny, wanna watch some movies for the rest of the night?" The girl gave him her trademark wide smile and nodded up and down. They scrolled through the on-demand movie channels, Jaune giving his partner the first choice in movie.

As the movie began, the blonde didn't like the angle of the T.V. from where he sat on his bed and grabbed the chair in the corner of the room before bringing it between his bed and Penny's, choosing to sit there.

As the movie went on, the ginger girl thought back to something she'd seen Neon do with Flynt. Often when their team watched movies in their dorm room, the cat faunus would often sit in her partner's lap or stretch across it. When she'd asked the girl about it, she simply stated it was something she did whenever she watched movies with her partner. When she asked why, Neon shrugged her shoulders and told her to try it with Jaune some time.

Nodding her head, she sat up from the bed drawing her partner's attention. And made her way to his chair, before plopping down in his lap and continuing to watch the movie.

Jaune on the other hand, was a blushing mess, and was noticing a ton of things all at once. One, his partner was in his lap. Two, he felt as if Neon had some part in causing this. Three, his heart was racing, though his partner didn't notice as she was entranced by the movie. And four, the girl was actually much lighter than he expected from an android.

Eventually, he leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes listening to the movie, absentmindedly playing with Penny's hair as he did so.

While Penny, she had a small blush on her face, as what her and her partner were doing, was exactly what the characters in the romance movie she chose to watch were doing as well.

* * *

**(A/N)**

**So it's finally happened. The first part of Jaune and Penny being in Vale is complete, and now, I'm working on the next.**

**Also, to give you a visual of Jaune's new look. Look up "Elsword Lord Knight" and go to images, and its that guy's outfit, but with blue instead of red, instead of a cape he has a hood, no cloth thing hanging in front of his pants from the shirt, and he has a small pony tail now.**

**Also, I should probably mention this. The armor Jaune added to his outfit was purely aesthetic. It could theoretically protect him a bit, but aura is the body's natural armor. It just completes the look he was going for.**

**Anyway, I think that's about it for this A/N. See you all again soon!**

**B.J.H.**


	15. Chapter 15-The Rumor Mill

**(Chapter 15)**

The Saturday morning sunrays shone through the large windows of Ozpin's office at Beacon Academy. He sat in silence, a cup of cocoa sitting comfortably close on his desk as he scanned over various documents, waiting for the arrival of the Atlesian General. A short while later, during an indulging draw from his mug of liquid delight, the elevator pinged, signifying the arrival of his guest.

The doors parted ways to reveal James adjusting his tie as he stepped forwards. Ozpin rose from his desk and met his fellow headmaster in the center of his clockwork office.

"Oz, it's been far too long." The two men shook hands with respect.

"Indeed it has my old friend, I hope you're well?" The two withdrew their hands, and made their way to the white-haired man's desk, sitting on either side of it.

"I am, and I hope the same for you. Though, for once, the flight itself wasn't actually all that terrible." Ozpin raised a brow at his ally's comment, knowing how the man felt about travelling via bullhead and not his flagship.

"Oh? And do tell; why is that?" The man was about to answer when a faint tapping at the window was heard. They both turned to see a familiar red-eyed black bird sitting on the windowsill. The two men shared a look, before Ozpin grabbed a remote and pressed a button, causing the window the crow was sitting outside of to open, allowing it into the room. It flew around the upper parts of the room, before diving behind a pillar, and not a moment after it did, Qrow appeared walking from the other side of the pillar.

"You two are having a get together and didn't invite me. What gives?" The man reached for his flask before taking a long draw from it. The two headmasters were genuinely surprised at their comrade's presence, since the man rarely spent time inside the walls of Vale, or any kingdom for that manner. James stood from his seat to address him.

"Qrow, it's good to see you." A nod of respect was given from the general to the former Signal Academy professor, who raised his flask in acknowledgement of the man's greeting as he returned it.

"You too Jimmy." The general let out a sigh at the nickname but sat back down all the same. The drunkard slowly strode towards the table, before taking a seat next to the general across from the white-haired man, who gave him a nod before addressing him.

"Qrow, I'm glad to see you're well, but we weren't expecting you to be back yet. What brought you back inside the walls?" The red-eyed man capped his flask as he leaned back in the chair comfortably as he responded.

"Well, I needed to take a breather after being so deep in enemy territory. I was going to head to Mistral instead to go meet with my sister, but I haven't seen the girls in a while and decided to drop by to pay them a little visit instead." Say whatever you might about Qrow Branwen, but no one could deny that he loved his family, despite how disjoined it was.

Ozpin nodded to his ally as did James, and with his presence out of the way, James voiced a question.

"So, since you're going to be taking some time off, anything to report?" The scythe user took a swig from his flask before responding to the disciplined man next to him.

"Large groups of Grimm located outside the walls, ancient Grimm here and there, and a few undocumented species of the damn things. Managed to get some pictures of those for you and the other headmasters, as well as behavior and some of their abilities. And something else, but it can wait." Both of the headmasters nodded in appreciation for the man's thoroughness, and this time, it was Ozpin who spoke.

"Before you leave to go see Ms. Rose and Ms. Xiao-Long, do let me upload the information from your scroll to our servers Qrow. What you've discovered could save someone's life down the road." The red-eyed man nodded as he drank from his flask before he retrieved his scroll and tossed it to the white-haired man sitting across from him.

After starting the download of data from Qrow's scroll, Ozpin poured another mug of cocoa for himself and offered one to James. As the spectacled man sat down in his seat, he grew a ghost of a smirk before he addressed the general.

"Taking a bit of a detour towards more pleasant conversation; how has Jaune been doing at your Academy?" Hearing these words, James moved his mug away from his mouth as he began to answer his longtime friend.

"Before I begin, I need to thank you Oz." A raised eyebrow and a slow sip from his mug signaled for the Atlesian general to elaborate as to why.

"The amount of raw potential in that boy is incredible. At the beginning of the semester he came to Atlas with no training, no weapon, and no path. Now?" The general smiled as he thought about the motivation his student had before continuing.

"Now he is one of the top performers among the first years. Not to mention he has the makings of a brilliant tactician and strategist in addition to being a natural leader." He let loose a smirk before he took a large draw from his mug of cocoa and recounted the events of the midterm to headmaster of Beacon.

"During my academy's midterm, a fierce blizzard blanketed the area outside Mantle on the final day. At the absolute last moments of the exam, he and his squad mates arrived at the edge of the city no worse for wear." Ozpin laced his fingers together as he fixed James with an inquisitive stare before he asked a question.

"Squad mates?"

"Ah, it's something we're experimenting on with the first years. I'll explain the system to you later." At this, the white-haired man nodded, and Qrow decided to speak up.

"It sounds like he just barely passed the exam." At this, James chuckled as he continued to speak.

"True. He and his squad did take almost every single second that was given to pass the exam. However, him and his squad retrieved and led _every_ single student that was scattered out in the tundra back home." At this, Ozpin recoiled slightly and began to smile in thought of the young man, before Qrow asked a question.

"Hey uh, who's this Jaune kid you two are talking about?" Ozpin pushed up his glasses before he answered his former student.

"Jaune was the young blonde that you gave a rather sincere speech to about character a few months ago." The drunkard snapped his fingers as he recalled who they were talking about. Seeing that the red-eyed man was now aware of who the student was, James continued.

"Not only that, but his academic grades have improved significantly from when he first began, as did his practical grades, and recently I was informed that he's been engaging in training during his free time with some of my Ace Ops. He seems to have a good relationship with his teammates and the other members of his squad." The general leaned back in his seat slightly as he grew a fond smile as he described a rather recent event.

"The day after the students completed their midterms, I was on my way to my office, when I see all the first years congregated in the dorm commons. Spirits were high, and students from different teams and squads were all mingling together. And I suspect that Jaune and his friends had a hand to play in creating that atmosphere."

The two men looked to the general with surprise written on their face as the disciplined man looked proud while he talked about the blonde teen. Ozpin's however changed to one of content as he saw the positive effect that Jaune was having both on the general and those around him.

"I'm glad to hear that he's in an environment that's allowing him to become the man I knew he can be. Now, as much as I'd love to leave business at the door, let's talk security." A sigh from the red-eyed man drew their attention to him as he spoke.

"That's another thing that brought me back. The queen has pawns. I don't have any positive info on who they are, but the people she's surrounded herself with are clever, with the power and influence to match."

Qrow's comment was met with nods from the other two men and Ozpin sent a message to Glynda so that she would come participate in their discussion about the forces they were fighting.

* * *

A pair of cerulean blue eyes fluttered open as Jaune began to wake. Vision blurry, he brought a hand up to rub his eyes and noticed a weight on him. As his sight cleared up, he looked to the wall near the door and saw that the clock read 10:07, before he looked down and what he saw drew a silent, furious blush.

During his slumber, Penny had turned around so that she sat in his lap and was laying on him with her head on his shoulder and arms around his neck. He could tell that she knew he was awake as she pulled her head back from his shoulder to look at him.

"Good morning Partner!" Her cheerful voice vanquished the rest of his grogginess as the two sat facing each other on the chair.

"G-Good morning Penny…" The response earned another smile from the girl. The two sat in silence for a moment, before the ginger haired girl decided to speak up.

"So Jaune, did you like the movie?" The boy she was sitting on chuckled, embarrassed as he responded.

"Well…I uh, I wasn't paying too much attention to the movie…" The girl pouted innocently before images of her sitting in the blonde's lap with him running his hands through her hair played in her mind, causing the girl to blush and color her cheeks the same as her partner's.

Slowly the ginger removed herself from his lap before standing off to the side so that he could rise from his seat. Stretching as he stood the two looked at each other with their blushes still faintly present and smiled to each other.

"So, what do you want to do today Penny?" The girl seemed to think about the question, and while she did, Jaune was deciding on whether he should bring both of his weapons with him into town, before settling on only bringing his revolver and leaving his sword and shield in his room. As he finished putting on his holster, he turned to face his partner again who spoke quietly, having decided on what they should do first.

"How about we start with breakfast?" The boy looked confused though no less enthusiastic as he replied to his partner.

"That sounds great, but why do you want to start with that?" The girl smiled as she tilted her head to the side lightly and answered him.

"I might not need to eat, but you do Jaune." The blonde's stomach rumbled at that moment causing him to rub the back of his head sheepishly. As they moved towards the door to their room, the blonde suddenly stopped before back to his partner with a happy expression.

"I think I have a great idea Penny. Since you don't need to eat but I do, why don't I tell you what things taste like from now on?" The girl's eyes widened before she nodded and followed after him with an excited look on her face.

'He's always thinking of others.' The ginger thought to herself as they made their way out of the hotel and to the streets of Vale. After a bit of idle chat and walking, the two found themselves in front of a café that Jaune had heard of during his time in Vale, but never had a chance to try for himself.

It was a two-story building, with indoor seating on both levels, and outdoor seating on the second floor. It looked rather plain all things considered, but still seemed to exude a homey feeling. The two shared a look, before they both smiled and made their way inside.

After deciding to take a seat outside on the second floor, the two reviewed the menu, with Penny asking questions about the things she saw on it, and Jaune giving a laugh here and there at some of the things she was asking about. Eventually the waiter came back to take their orders, with Jaune having ordered a cinnamon roll and a sweet cream coffee, and Penny ordering a dessert that Jaune never heard of called a flan.

After a few minutes of enjoying the ambiance of the café and making some playful small talk, their orders arrived, and as Jaune began to eat, Penny watched him with a waiting smile. A few moments after he began to speak.

"So, what should I describe first?" The girl pointed to his pastry and he nodded as he tried to put into words the taste of his dessert.

"So, it's really sweet. It's warm and fluffy, though, they can get kinda messy if you don't hold them a certain way or if you eat them fresh, but that's part of the experience. Oh! And the center is really gooey." The ginger android nodded excitedly as he she then pointed towards his cup of coffee. The blonde teen smiled before he took a sip and enjoyed the taste before he began to explain.

"So, coffee by itself is typically pretty bitter. Most people drink it for the energy that comes from the caffeine, but some do like to drink it by itself. A lot of people add sugar and cream to make it taste better, but there are a few types of coffee that are meant to, and should be, drank without anything added."

He took an indulgent sip of his coffee before he continued speaking to his partner. "This one's really mellow. It goes down smooth, the bitterness is really subtle, and it's just tasty." The girl across from him excitedly pushed her chosen dessert towards her partner, who after observing it for moment, took the first bite.

Penny was practically bouncing in her seat as Jaune looked to be in thought before he began to speak.

"So, it's really creamy, and sweet. Besides the caramel topping, the rest is kinda hard to put into words besides saying it tastes good." The girl sitting across from him looked confused as she voiced her question.

"Why is it hard to put into words Partner?" The blonde took another spoon of the ginger's chosen dessert before trying to elaborate.

"Well its like, there's a vanilla taste, and a caramel taste, and a very faint egg taste. It's really smooth too, and cold." Penny nodded to her partner as she regained her smile as Jaune finished off the rest of the flan. The two were about to prepare to leave when movement from the corner of their eyes drew their attention.

Turning to glance at whoever was approaching them, the two were greeted with the sight of an ever-stoic Blake, and in tow behind her, the blonde faunus that had almost ran into them the day before.

"Mind if we join you." Blake's question came out in an even tone, but she didn't wait for an answer, opting to take a seat at the table made for four across from Jaune while the monkey faunus took the other empty seat.

The waiter returned to take the order of the two who'd joined Jaune and Penny, before leaving to attend to other patrons. A tension hung in the air between Jaune and Blake, which didn't go unnoticed by the other two sitting at the table.

After a few moments, Blake decided to cut straight to the chase.

"How do you know so much about me?" The blonde sat back in his chair as he gave a pause before he spoke, making sure to answer carefully.

"Well, I sorta guessed you were a faunus around the time our teams were getting close to know each other better. I saw your bow twitch once or twice and figured you were probably hiding your faunus features." The girl studied him for a moment before she sighed, seemingly accepting the answer.

The waiter returned with the orders of the two faunus teens, as well as a refill for Jaune, who gave the man an appreciative nod. After taking a sip of her tea, Blake decided to continue her questioning.

"And what about everything else you seem to know?" As she finished her sentence, her eyes narrowed as she focused solely on the blonde across from her.

"Well, when I was given the boot, I looked into all of you. I thought your last name sounded familiar when I first met you, but I didn't really think too much about it. But after I did some research, I found out why." An answer that didn't reveal too much, or anything really, but was meant to deflect the attention.

The black-haired girl looked to her side and noticed the intensely curious look that her companion was giving her. She sighed as she took another sip, before beginning to speak to the blonde faunus.

"Sun, are you familiar with the White Fang?" Her companion responded quickly.

"Of course. I don't think there's a faunus on the planet who hasn't heard of them. Stupid holier than thou creeps that use force to get whatever they want. Bunch of freaks if you ask me." From the side Jaune took a sip as he saw the brief look of regret and slight irritation flash across Blake's face.

"I was…once a member of the White Fang." Sun's eyes widened as he coughed on his drink before speaking again.

"Wait a minute! YOU were a member of the White Fang?" The girl looked off to the side as she responded to her fellow faunus.

"That's right. I was a member for most of my life actually, you could almost say I was born into it." At this point Jaune decided to tune them out, having received a significant history lesson on the White Fang from his partner the day before. A few minutes went by before Blake began to cap her monologue.

"So, I left. I decided I no longer wanted to use my skills to aid in their violence, and instead, I would dedicate my life to becoming a huntress. So, here I am, a criminal hiding in plain view, all with the help of a little black bow."

Sun was silent, before he decided to ask her a question.

"So, have you told your friends any of this?" Her only response was to close her eyes, but her answer was clear.

A few more minutes of silence followed, before Sun coughed and decided to switch subjects, extending his hand towards the two he'd yet to formally introduce himself to.

"By the way, my name's Sun, Sun Wukong." His hand was met by his fellow blonde who returned the greeting.

"I'm Jaune, no last name. And this is my best friend, Penny." The girl mentioned gave an electrifying grin as she spoke to the monkey faunus.

"It's a pleasure to meet you!" She shook hands with Sun as well, before the teen decided to ask another question, gesturing towards Blake and Jaune.

"So…how do you two know each other." Immediate, he discovered that was an awkward subject to discuss as the two looked at each other and a fraction of the tension from earlier returned. Neither of them spoke for a moment before Blake decided to start.

"Jaune used to attend Beacon with me." She looked guilty, something Sun picked up on before asking a question.

"I'm sensing a 'but' in there somewhere." At this point, Jaune decided to take the reins of the explanation.

"Long story short, I never received training before I went to Beacon. I forged my transcripts, got accepted, barely passed initiation, and a few weeks later, my secret came out. Blake and the rest of our group decided to rat me out, and I was expelled. Got disowned too." Having finished with his explanation, the teen took an indulgent sip of his refilled coffee as he waited for a response from the teen.

"…That's it?" The question surprised Jaune a bit, and completely threw off Blake. The two teens looked at Sun for a moment, before he decided to give his own opinion.

"I mean, don't get me wrong, you probably shouldn't have done what you did, but I have no right to judge you. I broke the law just to get here when I stowed away on that ship. Hell, I'm from Vacuo, what you did is pretty tame compared to what counts as common crime back home." Jaune just chuckled as he gave a grateful nod to the teen. At this point, Blake decided to speak her mind.

"But he could have put his team in danger, not to mention himself." Sun brought his cup to his face with this tail and finished off the rest of his drink before he spoke again.

"Could have, would have; who cares? To me, what matters is intent." He looked to the blonde before he continued speaking to Blake. "He doesn't seem like a bad guy, at all. Plus, he didn't hurt anyone. And his old team sounds like they were perfectly capable. The world needs more people who are willing to fight for what's right, and if he wants to put his life on the line to do it, he should have that choice."

As he finished, the faunus was met with a beaming smile from the ginger android and even a small one from his fellow blonde.

A sigh of resignation came from the cat faunus as she thought about what her companion said, and eventually, Sun asked another question.

"So, what's the plan now?" The girl put a hand to her chin in thought as she responded.

"I still don't think the White Fang is behind these robberies. They've never needed that much dust before." At this, Jaune and Penny both looked confused, and the blonde decided to voice a question of his own.

"What robberies?" The two faunus looked at him before Blake answered him.

"Dust shops throughout Vale have been getting robbed, and there was one constant across every robbery; that the only thing stolen was the dust. They never took the money." The two students of Atlas looked to each other and began to think before Sun spoke up.

"What if they did need all that dust? I mean, the only way to prove that they didn't do it, would be to go to the place where they would most likely go to if they were to do it, and not find them there, right?" The girl furrowed her brow in frustration as she responded to her companion.

"The only thing is, I have no idea where that would be." Sun adopted a thinking look as he continued the conversation.

"Well…while I was on the ship, I heard some guys talking about offloading a huge shipment of dust coming in from Atlas."

"How huge?"

"_Huge. _Big Schnee Company Freighter."

"You're sure?" The monkey faunus didn't have to say anything, but the firm look he had let her know all she needed.

Blake stood up from her seat, prompting Sun to get up as well. They shared a nod before the black-haired girl pulled out some lien cards and laid them on the table.

"That should cover our drinks." She said nothing else and turned to leave as Sun followed her, giving Jaune and Penny a friendly wave as he did so.

The waiter returned, and took the lien cards from the table, and Jaune paid for the rest of breakfast. Leaving a significant tip, the two exited the café, and as they were walking down the sidewalk, Jaune spoke.

"We've got to tell General Ironwood. I should probably let Whitley know about this too." Penny nodded in agreement with his statement, but Jaune remembered that the General was supposed to be meeting with Ozpin at the moment. Seeing the look of thought on the face of her partner, Penny decided to grab his attention.

"What's wrong Partner?" The blonde faced the android girl before he explained his hesitation.

"The General's supposed to be in a meeting right now, and nothing we have is really concrete, just a bunch of speculation. But I know a way we can get some information about everything that's been going on."

"And how is that Jaune?" The blonde began to lead her somewhere as he answered.

"We need to go to a certain nightclub in town."

* * *

**(A/N)**

**Hey guys, sorry this chapter took three weeks to come out.**

**To give an explanation, I just needed to take brief respite from only writing. Busting out multiple four thousand word minimum chapters is a tall order, and basically means that I'm not gaming or doing anything else besides work, online classes, and writing. And if I'm being honest, I really wanted some time to game with my pals.**

**Don't worry, still ain't giving up on this story, and I know that updates are kinda wacky with me, cause chapters can either take up a lot of time, or get done in two days. All depends on motivation and my schedule.**

**I think I will make a discord server so that if anyone want to pop in while I'm writing or gaming, they can chill with me as well. I'll probably put it in the next chapter if I decide to go through with it, I'm indecisive.**

**Anyways, stay safe and healthy!**

**B.J.H.**


	16. Chapter 16-Need to Know

**(Important A/N at the bottom!)**

**(Chapter 16)**

"And you're positive this will be happening tonight?" The questioning tone of Whitley was heard by Jaune and Penny from the blonde's scroll. The leader of team JCKP shook his head as he began to reply.

"I'm not sure, but if what I've heard is true, then there is at least a chance that the shipment of dust they were talking about is going to be hit. I just figured I should let you know about what I've heard since it has to do with your family." The white-haired teen on the scroll's screen put a hand to his chin as he thought to himself.

"Have you made the General privy of this information?" The blonde teen sighed before he answered his friend.

"Not yet. We wanted to make sure that we have more than rumors if we have to bother Ironwood." There was a brief silence before Whitley nodded and continued the conversation.

"Very well, I'll do some research and see if I can confirm whether or not there is a shipment of dust scheduled to be delivered today. I'll also notify my father of this information immediately. He'll no doubt be grateful for your discovering this." The blonde nodded to his friend, before he decided to bring the call to a close.

"No worries, and we'll keep you filled in if anything comes up." With that, the call ended. Whitley left his team's dorm room and made his way to the courtyard, before he took a deep breath and began to call his father.

A few moments went by in silence, the white-haired teen's heart audible in his ears before the other line picked up.

"Hello Father, I hope you're well this afternoon." The moustached man on the other scroll screen nodded to his son before he spoke.

"Whitley, I must say I'm surprised to be receiving a call from you of your own volition. What brought this about?" The youngest of the Schnee family paused briefly before he decided to ask a question.

"I needed to ask you a question concerning the family business." The older man's eyes widened before he steadied his expression before motioning for his son to continue speaking.

"Father, is there a shipment of dust scheduled to be delivered to Vale today?" The older man paused to study his son's face before he looked away from the scroll and began typing away at his computer. After a few moments of searching and scanning digital documents, the older man looked to his son with slightly narrowed eyes.

"There is, but how would you know that Son?" The white-haired teen kept his composure, albeit barely, as he answered his father.

"Jaune is in Vale with his partner and General Ironwood. Dust shops throughout Vale have been victims of robberies. A common factor between all these crimes is that the perpetrators never stole lien, only dust. He overheard that there was a large shipment of dust from our company that was going to be offloaded tonight and thought to warn us ahead of time."

The older man leaned back in his seat as he brushed his moustache with his hands in thought. Eventually, Jacques let out a sigh, massaging his temples as he began to speak.

"…I thought it odd that commercial purchases of dust throughout Vale spiked in the last few months. Due to the timing of the sudden influx of dust being bought by local businesses, I simply attributed it to being near the beginning of Beacon's semester. Now I see that it was no mere coincidence." The man sat up as he began to type with a focused look on his features.

Seconds turned to minutes as Whitley waited patiently for his father to say something, before he decided to speak up.

"Father, what would you have me do about this situation?" The man stopped typing for a mere moment to gaze at his son, before he nodded and responded while continuing to type.

"Nothing Whitley, you've done more than enough by making me aware of these incidents. I'm going to request that the docks be monitored for illegal or suspicious activity by the authorities in Vale." The older man paused, before speaking again.

"Your associate has done our family a service by notifying you. I must say; I am pleased you are surrounding yourself with such upstanding company Son."

"T-Thank you Father…If you no longer require anything of me, I'll leave this in your hands." As Whitley went to end the call, the older man stopped typing as he spoke out to his son.

"Actually, I have a few questions for you Whitley, if you'd indulge me." The youngest of the Schnee family nodded and waited for the older man to question him.

"My first question is this: Until now, the guilty have only been robbing from dust shops across Vale, and the only thing they've stole had ever been product. Why?"

He recognized his father's tone of voice as one he used when evaluating something, and realized he wasn't asking for hypotheticals, but for an answer.

The white-haired teen put a hand to his chin as he began to think intensely.

'…It is an anomaly. Granted the reselling price of dust can go up to three quarters of whatever the market price is, it being such a valuable resource. But that still doesn't explain why the robbers wouldn't also take the money if they were just going to resell the dust.' The teen shook his head and took a deep breath, realizing he was likely thinking the way he was expected to, and tried to think from a different perspective.

'Maybe…they aren't going to resell the dust. Maybe they're keeping it for something. But still, why not just take the money and then use it to buy more dus-'

A possibility came to the teen's mind, and he thought about it before he gave an answer to his father.

"They want to make their crime sustainable. If they allow the businesses to keep the money, those stores will eventually restock their stolen goods, which will set them up to get stolen from again, when the time is right." The older man fixed his son with his gaze as he nodded.

"My thoughts precisely. Good intuition. Now, if they have gone through all the trouble and effort to make crime sustainable as they have been to this point, why suddenly shift to such a high-risk maneuver?" The younger boy needed to think only for a few seconds when the most likely answer came to him.

"Desperation." At this, the older man leaned back in his chair before he began to muse to himself aloud.

"I wonder; who are the culprits and what could have them so desperate to acquire dust." The older man filed that train of thought away for later as he asked his son one last question.

"Last question Son. Now that we are both privy to the situation of dust shops in Vale, what would you do?" This question was rather open-ended, but Whitley had an idea as to what his father meant and answered honestly.

"I would consider how I best could help the S.D.C. as well as the small businesses that sell our product. Maybe developing some form of insurance against theft, or a repayment system, where we would send them a replacement for lost product, and they pay us back for the second shipment over a set amount of time. The specifics would need to be much more specific so that we wouldn't get swindled, but such an investment would generate positive publicity and promote business."

The older man looked to his son with the corners of his mouth pulling upward ever so barely, it was almost unnoticeable.

"I'm pleased to see that your mind and business sense is sharp as ever, even with you attending the huntsman academy. Keep up the good work. Oh, and I suppose I should find a way to compensate your…friend. Now, I must return to my work. Stay well Son." And with that, Jacques ended the call, Whitley's chest warmed by the fact that his father approved of his friendship with his squad mate. The white-haired teen let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding before he spoke aloud.

"You too Father."

* * *

"We're not that far from the place now Penny." The voice of the tall blonde cut into the silence that had befallen their walk as they both seemed to be in thought. Penny perked up at this and decided to make conversation with her partner.

"What kind of club is it Jaune?" The teen looked to the ginger android before he began to answer.

"It's a club that literally doesn't have a name, but people go there to listen to music, dance, drink, or even meet new people. But…there is more to it than that." Penny gave the blonde a small pause, letting him know that he should continue with his explanation. With a sigh, the blonde resumed.

"Junior, the guy who runs the club, is an information broker. If anything is gonna happen in Vale, odds are he knows about it." After finishing his explanation, Jaune stopped walking, causing Penny to do the same before facing him confusedly.

"He's…also the head of a gang." At this, Jaune's ginger haired partner seemed mildly alarmed. She stayed silent where they stood on the sidewalk as she decided on a response.

"Jaune…I'm not entirely sure I like this plan…"

The girl's hesitation was perfectly logical, but he did have a response to give to her.

"Junior is our best shot at finding out anything that might be happening in Vale. And I know it might seem odd but…I don't think he's a bad guy."

"My apologies Partner, but I'm not quite sure I follow." Seeing the curious look on his best friend's face, Jaune leaned against the wall of the building they halted beside as he tried to explain his thoughts.

"Its…hard to explain. I guess the best way I can put it is that Junior is a good person, but he does bad things sometimes."

"Wouldn't that make him a bad person?" The blonde let out a sigh as he responded.

"I'm not entirely sure, but not every bad guy is a 'bad guy', and not every good guy is a 'good guy'. Sometimes, good people do bad things, and bad people do good things. Put it like this, what if you saw someone steal some food from a vendor? But if you follow him, you find out that he stole so that his child could eat because he couldn't afford to buy it. Is he a bad guy who did something good, or a good guy that did something bad?"

The girl across from him looked conflicted as she thought about what her partner had said before she continued the conversation.

"That's…I don't know." Her leader looked up to the sky as he continued to speak.

"It's complicated, huh?" The ginger nodded before he resumed talking.

"But that's how it should be. Every situation is different, and it makes it hard to know who you can trust." The tall teen pushed himself off the wall he leaned against and spoke again.

"Do you trust me Penny?" The girl's expression recaptured its trademark smile but a moment after the question was asked and nodded to Jaune. He returned the smile and the two continued their walk to the club.

After another 30 minutes of walking, and they finally found themselves in front of the building the blonde had been leading them to. They shared a look before they both nodded. Jaune knocked on the door and after a few moments of waiting, the door opened to reveal a man wearing black and red.

"We're not open right now." The blonde responded to the thug quickly.

"Can you tell Junior I'm here to see him?" The henchman eyed the blonde for a moment before he grunted and returned inside. A few minutes later, the door opened again to reveal an extremely tall and broad man with black hair.

"…" The blonde knew the man in front of him was not pleased. His posture and the air about him told the blonde that he was in trouble.

"H-Hey there Junior-" The older man cut him off.

"What have I told you about calling me Junior." The blonde seemed to clam up a bit as he corrected himself.

"Hei, uhm, how have you-" Again he was cut off.

"You had, one job. One." The teen began to sweat as the large man continued to speak.

"All you had to do, was keep in touch with us once you made it into Beacon. So why is it that I'm only seeing you now after all this time?" The Mistralian man crossed his arms waiting for a response as the blonde teen squirming under his gaze let out a sigh.

"I got kicked out." Junior's gaze softened a little bit, but before he could question the teen further, he looked at the ginger girl with him before he spoke again.

"Get inside Kid, don't want anyone eavesdropping on us while we talk." With that, he opened the door to his club and motioned for the teens to follow him.

As they walked inside, the club was more or less how Jaune remembered it. A large room mostly in black and white with hints of red here and there. The lights weren't strobing, likely due to the club not being open for the night yet. The second floor of the room had henchman fulfilling various tasks, and on the dancefloor walking to the bar was a pair of identical twins, one clad in red, the other in white. Jaune gulped as he followed the large man down towards the bar, his ginger partner following him closely.

Hearing large steps approaching, the two girls turned from where they sat at the bar to see their boss, followed by two teens around their age. As the three got closer, the two studied the familiar looking blonde, before it dawned on them who exactly it was following Junior. The large man motioned for the twins to follow him to the seated booths at the far wall. Once all seated, the girl in red glowered at the blonde silently while her sister in white scoffed and turned her head away from him.

"Alright, so explain what happened and why you haven't contacted us at all." The leader of team JCKP gave a sigh as he began to speak.

"Long story short, the truth about my transcripts got out, and not long after that I got expelled. Or rather, I would have been expelled." At this, Hei raised an eyebrow while the two girls looked a bit confused, but still not pleased while Jaune continued speaking.

"The headmaster made me an offer. He didn't want to let my potential go to waste, so instead of expelling me, he let me withdraw from his academy and told me he'd send me to one of the other academies, and I could choose which one I wanted to go to. So, I left that same day and I've been training up in Atlas ever since." The taller man stroked his beard as he looked over the blonde teen sitting across from him. Miltia decided to ask Jaune a question.

"Why didn't you call us when you first got there?"

"The first day I was too nervous with trying to not stand out. The day after was initiation, which I was nowhere even near ready for, and that wore me out. From there on, I kept trying to remind myself to call you guys, but classes and training took up all my time. Since I've left for Atlas, I've been putting my everything into getting stronger and trying to be a good leader." At this, Penny spoke up.

"It's true, Jaune is an exceptional leader! He's always training during his off time and his grades have risen exponentially as well." Her comment drew the attention of the others seated at the table. Melanie decided to ask a question to Jaune as she finally met his eyes while pointing at the ginger sitting next to him.

"Who exactly is she?" Jaune smiled as he introduced his partner.

"Guys, this is my best friend and partner, Penny." The girl reached her hand across the table and held it out as she spoke.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all." Her tone lacked the enthusiasm that it held when meeting team CFVY, but more invested than when she met team RWBY. Junior grunted in response and met the girl's hand with his own, knowing neither of the twins would reciprocate the action.

"Name's Hei Xiong, but I mostly go by Junior, and these are the twins. The one in white is Melanie, and the one in red is Miltia. We looked after Jaune for a little before he went off to Beacon, only to never message us again." He turned his head to glare at the blonde who was letting loose a sigh as Penny asked a curious question.

"You looked after my partner?" At this, the large bar owner retracted his hand before speaking.

"Yup, couldn't let some kid from the country who was too kind for his own good get taken advantage of. I got him a job at a hotel, a nice one too, so that he'd have a place to stay, and helped him get a hold of some forged transcripts." At that, Penny seemed to think for a moment.

She remembered Jaune saying that when he first got to Vale, he looked for a job before getting hired to work in a hotel in exchange for a room and minor pay. Now she was beginning to understand why he seemed to trust the man despite being the leader of a gang. Slowly, a smile creeped onto her features, aimed at Junior.

"Well then Mr. Junior, I'd like to thank you for taking care of my Partner before he arrived at Beacon!" The sudden shift in tone threw the large man off, but just as quickly as his surprise came, it left as he adjusted his tie for a moment as he spoke.

"Just call me Hei when no one else is around, and none of that 'Mr.' crap; makes me feel old." To his side, Melanie and Miltia voiced their shared thought.

"But, like, you are old." The older man glared at the two as he responded.

"And shouldn't you two be working?" The twins both let out a groan of exasperation before they got up from the booth and walked towards the bar.

"Now, what brought you here Kid." The mood shifted from one of leisure to business, not that the blonde was complaining.

"The dust shop robberies around Vale, what do you know about them." The teen slid a five hundred lien card across the table, and Junior picked it and looked at it for a moment, before he snapped his fingers and a moment later had one of his goons beside him. He made a drinking motion, and within a minute, a glass with a shot of top-shelf whiskey was placed in front of him. After taking a sip, he spoke.

"Before you made it into Beacon, Roman kept needing some of my boys for some 'jobs'. I knew that he was the one robbing the dust shops around Vale. But one night, one of the jobs went sour. They didn't manage to steal any of the dust they came for, and a few of boys were in jail or the hospital." Hei paused to take a sip and continued once he took the glass away from his lips.

"I've known Roman for a while, but I've never seen him scared before. The next I saw him after that, he was all out of sorts. Dark circles under his eyes, seemed to have a hard time keeping his voice level, and I'm pretty sure he was hiding a limp." He pulled out his scroll and showed a picture of Roman from the night he was recounting; the man looked worse for wear.

"He told me his employer found that his hired help was 'worth every cent', and that they weren't pleased with him. He told me that he was going to cut contact with me and the girls until things weren't so hot on his end. Whoever's got the hold of the guy is not someone he wants to be around."

"I'm guessing you don't know who they are." The man finished off his drink with a mighty swig before he spoke again.

"No clue, but if we're being honest kid, even if I did, I wouldn't risk getting involved with them." Upon seeing the look Jaune was giving him, he held a hand up signaling for the boy to wait for him to finish speaking.

"Look, I don't like the idea of someone, anyone, needing as much dust as what's been being stolen; it doesn't bode well. But Kid, I gotta tell you my priorities. Get Roman out of whatever shit he's got himself in, I wish I could. Believe me, I do. But keeping what I found," At that, he motioned to the Malachite twins at the bar, the various henchmen around the club, and then to the club itself before he spoke again.

"I have to, at all costs. And Kid, you shouldn't get too close to this either, no offense but you didn't exactly have a ton of skills when you left for Beacon." At this Jaune grimaced, before he shook his head and gave a determined gaze back to the larger man.

"I really need some info Hei, at least tell me you know who he has helping him with the robberies." The older man looked up to the ceiling before he sighed and nodded.

"The White Fang." And just like that, Penny and Jaune shared a look before Junior continued to talk.

"Kid, gimme your scroll." The blonde looked slightly confused but retrieved it nonetheless before tossing it to the bar owner. The man caught it and began tapping away. A half minute later, and the scroll was returned to the leader of team JCKP, along with the five hundred lien card.

"You can pay for that info by not getting yourself killed. And remembering to keep in contact with me and the girls. I put our info in your scroll, so this time, you don't have an excuse." The man looked exhausted, and a tad worried, but Jaune gave a small smile as he accepted the items being held towards him.

"So, what are you going to do now?" The blonde looked to his partner before he answered.

"Penny and I are gonna have a stake out at the docks tonight to watch out for anything. Before that though, I need to go get some different, non-lethal ammo for my gun, and let a few people know about what's going on." The older man gave him a look before he sighed and nodded. With that, Jaune and Penny said their goodbyes to Junior and the Malachite twins before moving to leave the club.

And no one noticed a woman with mismatched eyes disappear from where she was hidden above the lights and rafters of the club.

* * *

**(A/N)**

**Hi again!**

**Sorry this chapter took so long. Between a hurricane, work, classes, and trying to find some relaxation everywhere between, this one took a while. But I'm gonna be honest, the biggest factor for this chapter's delay, was trying to write for Junior and the Twins. They don't have many speaking lines, and while just looking at the characters, what they do, and who they are personality wise, I found it hard trying to get them to where I needed them.**

**If I'm giving an estimate, there are less than ten chapters left before Volume 1, which is the first semester, is done. After that, we go straight into volume 2. The next chapter shouldn't take so long, because its mostly going to be, well, I'm sure you all can guess what comes next.**

**Also, sorry if this one felt short. It just felt like the appropriate ending stopping place for this one.**

**Last few things!**

**Glad to see you're still breathing Weary, and also, thanks to everyone for all the feedback on this story thus far. I read every comment, and each one helps me grow as an author I feel. You asked about the caliber of everyone's gun, and I had a hard time putting it into a description, but hear it goes.**

**Ironwood: To give a mental image, his hand cannon is firing the RWBY equivalent, (so scaled really high up), of .600 Nitro Express. He has more shots per dust cartridge than Jaune/Whitley, (identical guns), and more power than Ciel, and his second trigger fire explosive rounds.**

**Ciel: RWBY equivalent of .500 Magnum, more damage than Jaune/Whitley, dramatically less shots, think something like Arthur Watt's firearm, but more damage, less shots, and instead of a dust cartridge making a projectile, actual dust rounds.**

**Jaune/Whitley: RWBY equivalent of .454 Casull, less damage than Ciel, Many more shots since they are, like Ironwood, on dust cartridge ammo.**

**I might should scale down Jaune/Whitley's to the equivalent of .50 AE, but I'm not sure.**

**Also, if some is using dust cartridges for their firearms, they have a drastically larger amount of shots per cartridge compared to real life with actual ammo and such.**

**Anyways, Sorry for the huge A/N, but the last piece of info is this.**

**We made the Discord! If you're interested, P.M. me and I'll give you the link, (I wanted to post it here, but FANF auto deletes part of it). Hopefully at least a few of y'all will come and hang out with me and a few of my buddies from time to time. We made a pretty neato server, (I hope), and would like to get as many people in it as possible, so invite people from other stories, other authors, etc. If you think they'd like to chill in a FF purposed discord, than share my link.**

**See you in the next chapter!**

**B.J.H.**

**(P.S.) Use the two lines below this one for the link to the discord, and get rid of all the spaces. Had to do it like this so FF wouldn't auto delete it.**

**ht**

**t p s:/ / discord .gg / 95NBjGd**


	17. Chapter 17-Burned Bridges

**(Chapter 17)**

Jaune and Penny made their way down the sidewalk at a slow pace with Jaune deep in thought.

"Partner, what are we doing first?" The blonde stopped walking as he was absorbed by his thoughts before he massaged his temples and spoke to his best friend.

"First, I need to get some non-lethal ammo for tonight, after that we'll see what time it is and find a spot to stake out at, then once we're set up, give a call to Whitley and the General." The ginger android nodded to him with a rare 'serious smile' as the blonde had decided to dub it.

An hour went by as they traveled across downtown vale before arriving at a huntsman grade arms supplier. The two shared a look before Penny decided to ask the blonde a question.

"Have you been here before Partner?" The blonde glanced up at the sign before he looked back to his partner and responded.

"Only one time, and I didn't even get anything. I wanted to see if I could get Crocea Mors sharpened, but at the time, I didn't know that it would never lose its edge, shine, or begin to rust. The lady behind the counter looked at it, pulled out a book, and five minutes later she tells me that it didn't need any upkeep. So, I just thanked her and left."

The ginger gave a nod to her partner as the two of them walked into the building, the bell attached to the doorframe ringing as they entered. The two took slow steps towards the counter as they admired the weapons lining the walls and filling the display cases and tables.

As they scanned the room, the sound of footsteps and ruffling papers began to grow louder. A few moments later, and a woman in her mid-twenties emerged from behind the curtains leading to the back of shop. She was slightly tanned, had neck length, curly blonde hair, and wore an outfit that was as revealing as Yang's, if not slightly more.

"Welcome in Y'all!" The woman's thick accent called out to the two from they stood, a few feet away from the counter. She looked up from the papers she was holding and gave them a look before she spoke again.

"Oh don't be shy now you two, I don't bite!" The two stepped up to the counter fully, and once there, the older woman studied them both, her eyes lingering on the taller blonde teen. Her face was scrunched up a bit, as if trying to figure something out.

"Have we met before Sweetie?" Jaune brought a hand up to the back of his neck, a bit embarrassed before he answered the woman.

"Once. I brought in my sword and shield for maintenance, but you told me it didn't and wouldn't need any." Immediately after explaining, the woman's eyes widened in recognition as she spoke again.

"Well how about that! What brings ya back to my li'l ol' shop here?" The leader of team JCKP unholstered his gun, before removing the dust cartridge inside and placing it on the countertop next to the firearm. The woman picked up the highly stylized revolver before double checking it wasn't loaded and pointing it at the wall away from her customers, testing the grips and weight of the weapon before studying the sides with a professional level of admiration.

"Whoever made this weapon ain't just a professional, they're an artist, on level with my Paw-Paw. Everythin' about this weapon is just so modern and nuanced that even if I disassembled the gun, I'd probably still miss somethin'." The gun was placed back onto the counter as she continued speaking.

"So, I'm guessing y'all are here for some ammo?" The teens nodded and the woman picked up the dust cartridge next to the weapon and inspected it. After a few moments, she gave a gave a nod before turning to her computer and searching for something. After a few minutes, she smiled and placed the cartridge back down onto the counter before addressing the partners.

"Lucky for you, I have some empty dust cartridges in this size in the back. So, you just want me to get you some more non-charged dust?" The blonde shook his head, causing the country girl to smile as she leaned on the counter and gestured for the blonde teen to explain.

"I'm looking for non-lethal ammo. Do you have any suggestions for what I should use?" The older woman looked a bit surprised at the request and turned her attention back to her computer. After a few minutes of silence, the blonde woman rotated the screen towards the two students and began talking again.

"As far as non-lethal goes, there aren't a whole lot of options to begin with I'm afraid. But, I went ahead and pulled up what I have in stock that's actually worth your time." The taller blonde looked at the list as the shop owner continued to talk.

"First, your most obvious choice is stun dust. The S.D.C. makes it, though it's just lightning dust that's been intentionally debased, so y'all won't have any unfortunate accidents." The arms supplier scrolled down on the list until she came upon the next product.

"Next up is concussion dust. Also meant to be non-lethal, but it comes in a wider variety. The C.D.I. used to make it. Now the thing-" Upon seeing the confused look on Jaune's face, the woman halted in her explanation as the blonde voiced his obvious question.

"Sorry but, what's the C.D.I.?" From his side, his ginger haired partner decided to answer.

"Coal Dust Industries. The C.D.I. was a budding business started by a Mantle-born citizen, and many suspected that they would grow to one day be a competitor to the dust giant, the S.D.C. But the company experienced an unforeseen and rapid decline in profit until they were forced to declare bankruptcy. There are many speculations as to their sudden decline however."

Upon hearing the name of the business, the blonde thought about his dark-skinned teammate and the unusual dust he used in his weapon, followed by the subtle change in demeanor that Flynt used to have whenever Whitley was near. He winced as he began to ask Penny a question he felt he already knew the answer to.

"Penny…does Flynt have any relation to this?" The android girl nodded her head in confirmation as she answered him.

"Friend Flynt is the founder's son." A groan escaped the blonde leader as he brought a palm to his forehead. Luckily, the two seemed to get along better, albeit awkwardly, after the midterm. The shop owner coughed a bit loudly, gathering the two's attention before speaking.

"Listen y'all, much as I love talkin' to ya both, I've got quite a few rush orders I need to get back to workin' on, so how about I do you a favor honey?" Jaune looked skeptical before he replied.

"What were you thinking?" The woman laced her fingers together on the counter and rested her chin on them, smiling as she spoke.

"The little bit of C.D.I. dust I have left is reachin' the end of its shelf life. I reckon it'd be better off in your hands doin' some good rather than losin' its shine in the back of my shop. So, if you wanna buy some of what I have left, I'll give y'all a discount, today only!" Jaune eyes widened at the offer, before returning to normal as he adopted a thinking pose. He stayed like that for a moment before smiling and nodding to her.

* * *

"So, we still don't any intel on the ones responsible for Amber's condition, and now, Salem has her own inner circle similar to our own." The calculative tone of Glynda Goodwitch spoke out in the clockwork themed office of Ozpin. Her question was met with a shake of the head, causing her bite her lip in anger as she clenched her fist.

"Glynda." The gentle tone Ozpin used caused her to let out a large exhale as she adjusted her glasses and unclenched her fist. Ozpin knew how much this meant to the woman. She was firmly against Amber becoming a maiden, and her biggest supporter after she was given the responsibility and curse of her powers.

"Qrow, how goes the search for the new summer maiden?" James took this time to insert his own question into the long discussion. The man in question let out a sigh as he took a swig from his flask before answering with a faraway look on his face.

"I ain't found anything. Spent the last half year in either Vacuo or in grimm territory. Trying to get in good with each nomad village in the desert takes time and finding them again after I leave isn't easy. As for the other thing, only reason I found that out was after I met with one of my sister's informants at Shade. Once he told me what Raven wanted me to know, I made my way here."

The headmaster of Atlas nodded in response to Qrow's answer, stuck in his own thoughts about what should be done before Ozpin decided to speak again, gathering everyone's attention.

There's no use in us wallowing in our lack of progress. For now, we all need to stay vigilant and report in whenever we discover anything." The other three occupants of the room nodded to him before he poured himself another mug of cocoa and asked his fellow headmaster a question.

"On a less stressful topic, how are the preparations for this year's Vytal Festival coming along?" The man's features seemed to lighten at the topic as he responded to the question.

"The preparations are going smoothly. Amity Colosseum will be ready to begin its scheduled flight to Vale for the tournament come time. And how are things on your end Oz?" The spectacled man smiled as he answered his longtime friend.

"Beacon will be prepared to welcome all of its guests visiting for the Vytal Festival, rest assured. Though, something tells me that this year's tournament will be one of the most interesting." Qrow having just finished taking another draw from his flask decided to ask a question despite his buzzed state.

"What makes you say that?" The white-haired man gave another quiet, mirthful smile in response before taking a sip from his mug and voicing his thoughts.

"Aside from the sheer volume of students I expect to be participating, the number of students who stand out amongst their peers is staggering." Everyone around the room nodded their heads at the ancient man's assessment.

The Atlesian general felt a vibration coming from his pocket and retrieved his scroll. The time read 1951, and below the time he saw that his blonde-haired student had sent him a message. He opened the message and started to read through its contents before his expression gradually shifted to one of alarm. The large man let out an uncharacteristic sigh as he began to massage his temples.

"Ozpin, you need to have a look at this." With that, the green-clad man raised an eyebrow as he accepted the scroll that was being handed to him. A few moments went by, before he handed the scroll back to the disciplined man and finished the rest of the cocoa in his mug off in one draw.

"Well, that's certainly alarming. Can you get him on the line?" The headmaster of Atlas nodded before sending a response back to the teen. All present in the room waited silently for a few minutes, before the scroll began to ring. The general answered it immediately and put the teen on speaker.

"Hello. Are you there General?" The voice on the other end sounded incredibly familiar to the blonde woman in the room, but she couldn't place it.

"Yes, Ozpin is here as well, and I have you on speaker." The four adults could hear the voice on the other end of the scroll call whispering to someone. Seconds later, the teen on the other end resumed speaking.

"I understand, and sorry for the delay. I asked Penny to keep an eye out while I moved to somewhere we could talk."

"What's your status?" The boy on the other end, was silent for a moment, before he answered.

"Me and Penny have been staking out here for a few hours now, we wanted to see if anything was actually going to happen before calling you. We were gonna give it another hour or two before the police showed up, but they're acting strange."

"Strange how?" The blonde took a moment before he responded to the general's question.

"They've set up a perimeter around the docks to keep the public away from here, but they aren't checking anyone's I.D, and none of them are patrolling the cargo yard at all, just keeping the perimeter." After he said this, the four hunters listening to him speak came to a shared conclusion, but before any of them could voice it, Jaune spoke again.

"I called Whitley to see if any of the rumors I heard were true, and he messaged me back not too long ago telling me that there was a big shipment of dust coming in tonight. Also, I found out who is behind all the dust shop robberies that have been happening in Vale."

This tidbit of information surprised the hidden protectors of Remnant, and this time it was Glynda who voiced a question.

"And who would that be?" There was a sound of surprise from the other end of the call before they asked a question in response.

"Ms. Goodwitch?" The woman realized why the voice on the other line sounded familiar.

"Jaune?" The surprise in her voice was clear and her face wore an incredulous expression. The leader of team JCKP shook his head before regained his focus as he spoke again.

"Roman Torchwick, and he's working with the White Fang." He gave them a moment to digest that information. The four listening on the other end all wore similar looks of thought. Ozpin cleared his throat before addressing the younger man.

"Jaune. While this info is no doubt helpful, and I assure you it will be used to do some good. I believe I can speak for your headmaster as well when I say that if there is even a chance that Roman Torchwick will make an appearance near you, then you need to be elsewhere. He is a graduated huntsman, despite having gone rogue."

They waited for a moment and when the teen didn't answer, began to fear something happened. A few more moments went by before Jaune spoke again.

"Sorry, thought I heard someone. But, the only reason me and Penny ar-"

"Penny and I." Everyone present sent a look towards Glynda before the blonde teen on the other scroll line spoke.

"…are here, is because Blake and some other guy named Sun planned to stake out here first. Penny is keeping an eye on them from where we are as well as looking out for Torchwick." This news made Ozpin rub his temples in exhaustion and Glynda grit her teeth at the cat faunus's foolish behavior.

Ozpin made a hushing motion towards Ironwood, and the man muted their end of the call before the spectacled man spoke to the general. The headmaster of Beacon retrieved his own scroll before trying something, and after a few moments of no results, spoke to his fellow headmaster.

"It seems that Ms. Belladonna has turned off her scroll." This comment made the general's eyes widen before he voiced his thoughts.

"Wait, you have a Belladonna attending your academy?" The man in question nodded his head, and the general could feel his own headache beginning to form.

"Oz, this isn't a good situation. If something happens to her-"

"We'd have a political shitstorm on our hands." Qrow cut off the general, but his comment was no less true, and they all knew it. The cyborg thought to himself for a moment before he let out an exhale and unmuted the line.

"Jaune, are you still there."

"Yes Sir." The man paused for a brief moment before he continued speaking.

"I want you to run damage control. Do not engage unless the Belladonna girl does. Do you understand?"

"Yes Sir. I'm gonna go rejoin Penny now if that's all." The man took a deep breath before he spoke to the teen one last time before ending the scroll call.

"It is. Stay safe." With that, the tall man ended the call. Ozpin immediately addressed the former member of the Branwen tribe.

"Qrow." The man needed no further words.

"On it Oz." And with that, he ran towards the opening window, and turned into a crow and began to fly towards the Vale shipping yard. As he flew off, Ozpin took out his scroll tablet and began typing away furiously.

"Would one of you like to explain to me what is going on." The irate voice of Glynda Goodwitch rung out through the office of Beacon's headmaster. Ozpin fixed her with a look before continuing to type away as he spoke.

"Currently, I'm writing a letter to the council concerning the likely involvement of the police in this heist, Qrow is heading to Vale in order to-"

"You know that isn't what I meant Ozpin. How does Jaune know James?" The man paused in his typing as his eyes met Glynda's before he laced his fingers together and spoke.

"James is his headmaster. Jaune withdrew from Beacon instead of letting me expel him. After that, he transferred to Atlas's huntsman academy." The man went back to typing, and the blonde disciplinarian looked lost before addressing Ironwood.

"Why would you accept that boy as a transfer student? He faked his transcripts to sneak into Beacon." The large man sighed before he answered.

"I'm well aware of what he's done, but it was a favor for Oz. However, whatever expectations I have for the young man, he continuously finds a way to shatter. He's thriving at my academy, with a squad that supports him and an environment that lets him grow." At this point, Ozpin decided to add another bit of information.

"Also, because he attended Beacon, despite how short his tenure was, he has legitimate transcripts now." The woman seemed to want to argue but was silenced by a look from her leader. She just sat down in one of the seats in the office, before removing her glasses and pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Glynda," the voice of the Atlesian headmaster caused her to look at him as he spoke.

"I can tell what your thoughts on the boy are, but I assure you, whoever you remember from when he was a student here at Beacon isn't the same young man that has been one of my students." He pulled up the boy's records and handed the scroll to the woman.

She looked it over for a moment and was thoroughly surprised to find that the boy was, true to the man's words, doing quite well. She handed the scroll back before placing her glasses back onto her face. The older man gave her a small, indulgent smirk as he spoke again.

"Would you like to hear about how he performed during his midterm?"

* * *

As the scroll call ended, Jaune moved the device away from his ear slowly and kept both of his hands in the air besides his head in a surrender pose, mindful of the thin blade being held against his neck from behind.

"Neo, that you?" He heard a quiet whistle from behind him, confirming his suspicion. The petit woman kept the blade positioned at his throat as she grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around. Cerulean blue eyes met mismatched pink and brown as the two said nothing.

"So-uh, c-could you maybe put your sword away? Please?" The cautious, and slightly pleading tone the blonde had spoke out, and the ice-cream colored woman tilted her head and brought a finger to her chin as she thought about it. Jaune felt the blade push against his throat a bit further before, it was pulled away and sheathed.

He let out a sigh of relief as he lowered a hand to his side and brought the other to rub his throat. He met eyes with the shorter woman and saw that she was signing to him.

'_Where have you been?' _Okay, a simple enough question to start with.

"I'm a student in Atlas's huntsman academy. I got kicked outta Beacon once they found out about my transcripts. Got offered a deal, so I've been making the most out of it since." The little lady studied him for a moment before nodding and signing her next question.

'_You were at Junior's today to get info about tonight, why?' _Jaune recoiled slightly in surprise but recovered quickly as he remembered what Neo could do.

"Someone I know planned on getting involved with tonight, and I need to know what she might be walking into." Neo could tell, Jaune wasn't lying, and decided to continue questioning him.

'_Who were you talking to on the scroll.' _The blonde waited for a moment before he answered her.

"My headmaster, General Ironwood." The girl's eyes narrowed, and he saw her clench Hush tightly, and quickly continued to speak.

"I know a little bit about what's going on with you and Roman. Junior told me about the last time they saw him. I want to help you two out, but I don't know how." The girl began signing angrily after he said this.

'_You can help by not being here! You know Roman wouldn't want you to get caught up in this bullshit we're being forced to do. And if he doesn't keep bring in dust…'_ Neo's bit her lip while her eyes narrowed, trying to fight back tears as she remembered having to watch Roman get beaten by their boss for the complication a few months ago.

She shook her head trying not to let her thoughts linger on her partner's punishment as she met Jaune's eyes with a determined glare.

'_I'll protect Roman. No matter what.' _Jaune stayed silent as he faced the petit woman before he spoke softly.

"I know. I don't want to fight you, either of you," He took a step towards Neo, and she prepared to draw Hush before Jaune drew her into a quick hug as he spoke again.

"I'll find a way to save you two, but first I have to make sure that no one dies tonight. On either side of this." He took a step back and the woman gazed at him with a look of pure disbelief. She sighed one last time before using her semblance to disappear.

Jaune took a deep breath before he slapped both of his cheeks lightly and made his way back to his partner. She was exactly where he'd left her, keeping her optics focused on the rooftop where Blake and Sun were supposed to be. He said nothing as he laid himself down to his stomach and retrieved a rangefinder he'd purchased from the arms dealer earlier in the day and began surveying the cargo yard.

The night vision it offered was invaluable for the current situation the blonde found himself in, and was able to see that the yard was still devoid of any activity, and when he looked back to where the faunus of team RWBY was, he was surprised to find that she was alone.

"Hey Penny, where'd Sun go?" The girl turned away from the yard to face her partner as she answered him.

"Friend Sun left around the same time you left for your call with the General. He went away from the docks, but I don't know more than that." The blonde nodded to his partner and shifted his position so that he was kneeling before pulling out the package of ammunition he'd purchased from earlier in the day and opening it.

Inside were several different types of dust cartridges as well as a letter explaining what he was working with in detail, which he began to read after stashing his new ammo on his person for use. Minutes later, his partner interrupted his reading of the letter.

"Partner, Friend Sun has returned to Blake's side. And with an armful of apples?" The leader of team JCKP was relieved that the blonde faunus just got hungry, before a loud sound and lights began to fill the cargo yard. Jaune had to shield his eyes and was worried when he saw a bullhead touch down.

Not but a few seconds later, the loading ramp lowered, and through the lens he could see masked figures exiting the aircraft followed by a familiar red-headed thief. He seemed to bark commands to the numerous faunus that were beginning to move through the yard, and after he had a moment of solitude, retrieved his scroll from his pocket.

He seemed to be doing something, before he turned around and looked to where Jaune and Penny where hiding, before his expression shifted to one of resignation as he subtly shook his head from side to side.

But, before Jaune could debate what to do, he spotted a black and white figure approaching rapidly from behind the dapper criminal. Before he knew what was happening, Blake was standing behind Roman with Gambol Shroud held at his neck, immediately drawing the attention of all the White Fang grunts.

"What is she doing!" Jaune hissed as he narrowed his eyes through the lens of the rangefinder, before putting the device away and loading a stun cartridge into his sidearm. To his side, Penny stood next to him as he was preparing.

"Are we going Partner?" The blonde met her eyes before he sighed.

"Since I didn't know if we would have time for me to get my sword, all I have on me is my gun." Jaune was intensely irritated at the situation, having thought Blake to be smarter than to pull what she just did. His irritation was shaken away when he saw one of his partner's blades from Floating Array being held in front of him. He glanced at the ginger and was met with a thumbs up as the wire detached from the blade.

Holding it in his hand, his first thought was that it was incredibly light, as well as perfectly balanced. Unlike his own sword however, it had a flat side instead of two edges. After a few practice swings, he nodded to her, and a sudden explosion from where Blake had apprehended Torchwick caused the two to leap from their perch and rush towards the action. But the explosion that Roman caused created a large amount of smoke that was practically a signal to several others who were searching around Vale for their cat faunus teammate.

As Jaune and Penny were running towards the commotion, more bullheads arrived, bringing reinforcements to the number of grunts at Roman's disposal. The blonde met his partner's eyes as he reminded her of what to do.

"Just like we went over. No lethal force, don't let anyone die, and try to keep property damage low." The girl gave a salute as they began to split apart slightly, shouting out to him.

"We're combat ready!" And with that, the two went in opposite directions to try and thin the number of White Fang.

As Jaune approached his target group of grunts, they heard the telltale sound of someone running towards them and turned around to see him rushing them. They raised their weapons and prepared to begin firing, but Jaune was quicker as he aimed at the grunt closest to him and squeezed the trigger.

A shocking projectile flew before striking the grunt, causing his body to seize up and convulse before a couple of seconds later, all movement aside from rhythmic rising and falling of his chest ceased. One of the grunts fell to a knee to check on their fallen comrade, before the rest of the group began to open fire on the blonde.

Seeing that the round did as intended, the blonde rolled to the side to avoid fire, finding cover behind a large shipping container. He peeked his head out to see that the grunts were beginning to surround and approach the container. The blonde took a second to compose himself as he listened to the footsteps coming closer.

Hearing a lesser number of footsteps coming from the left, he ran out of cover and revealed himself as he jumped forwards, surprising the two grunts who hesitated in their shock. The precious seconds would cost them though, and as they finally regained their bearings, the leader of team JCKP took a stance and fired two rounds at the Fang soldier to the left, one missing and the other landing a solid impact on his chest.

The man fell before his female companion managed to fire a few shots at Jaune, forcing him to roll to the side awkwardly to avoid getting hit. A stray bolt from her spray came dangerously close to the tall teen's head, causing him to narrow his eyes and drop to a kneel before taking a shot at the woman that found its mark, hitting her in the stomach.

The sound of rushing footfalls from behind him caused the teen to rush to the other end of the container he initially hid behind for safety. Jaune carefully peeked around the edge of the container to see four more foot soldiers searching for him in a sloppy attempt at a formation. He silently watched as they carefully approached the unconscious bodies of two he'd recently dispatched before moving to the next side of the container and climbing to its top.

Moving deathly slow, he found two of the group had moved to try and awaken their comrades, and that the other pair was standing guard watching either end of the container for movement. A few moments later, and the group of four joined their downed comrades in blissful unconsciousness.

Jaune spied the shipping yard turned battleground for where he should go next. He spotted his Partner engaging a large group of White Fang with her the blunt sides of the many blades that made up her weapon system before looking elsewhere, trusting her restraint.

As the blonde continued scanning the battlefield, he'd spotted the person he was specifically here to keep alive, mowing through the Fang grunts with a miniscule amount of restraint compared to her monkey tailed accomplice, who was dispatching his enemies without deploying his weapon.

Wincing as he watched some of the Fang get rough treatment from the cat faunus, he looked to the right and was alarmed to see Roman lining up a shot at Blake. Quickly, he aimed a few feet in front of the flame-haired criminal before firing off several shots, surprising the man and making him jump back before he could take his shot.

The man met the blonde's eyes and a look of conflict settled on his face as he prepared to have to fight Jaune, but out of the corner of his vision, he spied a shadow rushing him. Turning and raising his weapon to defend himself, he was met with the unrelenting aggression of Blake. The two engaged in a high-speed duel, with the former Fang member letting loose a flurry of strikes mixed in with her semblance.

To her anger, the older man blocked or deflected every strike, swipe, and lunge with ease, and predicted every feint, movement, and dash perfectly before counterattacking with a punch to the face. He blocked a few more hits, before a trio of cane strikes opened the girl out for a hit that sent her sailing a few feet away.

The man didn't receive a reprieve as the moment Blake was sent away, Sun engaged the man with Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang. Another fierce, rapid duel broke out, and to the shock of both Blake and Sun, the man was reading the teens move perfectly, but in the way he was forced to dodge the monkey faunus's attacks, left himself open to a swipe from the black-haired girl.

A growl later, and Roman's eyes caught sight of a hanging S.D.C. container. Jaune followed the man's gaze and his eyes widened as he realized what the older man was preparing to do. Not but a second later, the large metal container was shot down, forcing the two faunus teens to roll out of the way.

From where she moved to, the mysterious member of team RWBY's eyes widened as she caught sight of Jaune, before she raised her hand to say something. He felt a slight pain coming from his shoulder as his aura dropped, before turning around to face the one who took a cheap shot at him.

He calmed a little bit before seeing a shorter, female Fang member shaking in place where she stood, with her lips quivering as she stared him down. The tall blonde holstered his gun, before walking towards the shorter female.

"S-Stay back!" Her threat went unheard as the blonde strode forwards with an unreadable expression.

"I-I'm warning you!" The girl's demands grew increasingly desperate as Jaune came closer, with Blake watching quietly to see what would happen.

"Please…" Despite her begging, the teen didn't stop, she looked away from him, and though her weapon was practically jumping in her hands from her shaking, managed to fire a single round in the teen's direction. Jaune tilted his head to side and leaned with it slightly, letting the round pass by him harmlessly, if not a tad close for comfort.

"…" Saying nothing, the shorter girl refused to take another shot even as Jaune grew closer. Having finally reached her, the teen grabbed her mask before pulling it from her face. The girl looked to be about the same age as Ruby if he had to guess and looked rather plain all things considered. But the tears running down her face and puffy red eyes spoke volumes.

He stared at her for a minute before crushing the mask in his hand, causing her to jump slightly. Letting the fragments fall to the ground, he stared at her for a moment before sighing as he rubbed his shoulder from where he was hit. He nodded to the side and the girl looked to see that nothing was there before she got the message.

The boy turned away from her as he began to run towards Roman, never noticing how wide Blake's eyes were from what she saw, or how the girl watched him leave before throwing down her gun and running the opposite way to leave the shipyard.

As the blonde ran to intervene, a voice rung out across the shipyard.

"Hey!" causing everyone present to look to a warehouse rooftop where the leader of team RWBY was standing with her sniper-scythe deployed. The blonde was about to say something, but the sound of three approaching bullheads drowned out his thoughts.

The blonde idly noticed that his Partner had caught up and was standing next to him, also eyeing the bullheads.

"Do you want me to bring them down Jaune?" The blonde looked to her as he thought about it before he nodded to her. He handed her the blade from her Floating Array that he ended up not needing before moving away to give her some space. She fanned her blades out in front of her, charging up her laser attack, before pushing forwards, slicing two of the three bullheads in half.

As the grunts fell out of the cleaved aerial transports, the girl used her blades to catch them by their clothes before pinning them to the ground. Both her and her partner spotted the remaining bullhead preparing its departure with a container of S.D.C. dust attached below. She prepared to send her blades into the bullhead to pull it back to the ground but was halted by a hand on her shoulder by Jaune.

She gave him a confused look, before letting her blades store themselves back into their storage unit, while the blonde gave a slight sigh of relief. He looked to see, Blake and Sun staring at the fallen bullhead halves sinking in the harbor before noticing that Roman was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

Sirens blared in the background as the five teens sat on large wooden crates, no one having said a word since the battle ended. All around them Valean police officers were escorting their own in handcuffs for their suspected involvement with the attempted heist.

A pair of people were walking towards the group, drawing their attention. The group of five turned to see Weiss and Yang walking towards them, the former's eyes focused solely on Blake. Ruby immediately moved to placate the heiress, worried at another possible conflict while her sister stood off to the side.

"Look Weiss it's not what you think she explained the whole thing you see she doesn't actually wear a bow she has kitty ears and they're kinda cute-" The rapid run on sentence was cut off as Weiss ignored her partner, opting to walk to her faunus teammate and stare at her for a few moments. After a moment of silence, Blake was the first to speak.

"Weiss, I want you to know that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with the-"

"Stop! Do you have any idea of how long we've been searching for you?" The white-haired girl gave her teammate a moment to think about what she'd done before continuing.

"Twelve hours. That means I've had twelve hours to think about this. And in that twelve hours, I've decided..." Ruby, Yang, and Sun all waited silently, worried that the issue wouldn't be resolved, while Jaune and Penny sat curious to what the outcome would be.

"I don't care." This threw the black-haired girl for a loop, while Sun and her other two teammates let out a sigh of relief.

"You don't care?" The question was hesitant, but the Schnee answered quickly.

"You said you're not one of them anymore, right?" The girl nodded back just as quick before she replied.

"No, I-I haven't been since I was younger-" As she began to try and explain, she was cut off by the shorter girl.

"Ah-bah-bah-bah-bah! I don't want to hear it. All I want to know is that the next time something this big comes up... you'll come to your teammates. And not some..." The girl cast a look behind her teammate, staring at Jaune, Penny, and Sun before she continued.

"Someone else." Blake eyes found Ruby and Yang, who both gave her a grin, before wiping a tear from her eye as she answered her partner.

"Of course." The white-haired girl nodded, before walking to Sun and leveling a finger at him.

"I'm still not quite sure how I feel about you!" The monkey faunus laughed nervously before the girl turned toward Jaune and her eyes narrowed.

"And as for _you_, I-"

"I certainly hope you're going to thank that young man, Ms. Schnee." The comment caused the huntsman students to turn to where the voice came from and were shocked to see Ozpin and Glynda approaching them. Blake's ears flattened against her head at the glower she was receiving from the deputy headmistress.

The Atlesian girl cleared her throat before responding to her headmaster.

"Pardon me Headmaster, but I don't see why I should give this lying cheat-" At this point, Jaune had to voice his thoughts.

"She said after forgiving a former terrorist." The girl's eyes narrowed as she grit her teeth and took a step towards the blonde, reaching for Myrtenaster. Not one to be intimidated anymore, the tall teen let his hand fall to the grip of his firearm warningly. Ozpin walked between the two as he continued talking.

"Ms. Schnee. Are you aware that Ms. Belladonna's actions tonight classify as vigilantism?" At that, the heiress froze, as did the rest of her team, save Ruby.

"Uhm, what's that?" The girl's whispered question didn't go unheard as Glynda was the one to answer.

"It means she did the police's job without the authority to do so. Similar to your own situation prior to coming to Beacon, Ms. Rose."

"Except she got rewarded for it." The blonde's comment caused everyone to look at him again. The expression he had on his face wasn't one of anger or malice, not even irritation, but there was something behind the look he was wearing. A cough from the headmistress had everyone's attention as she began speaking again.

"…Be that as it may, its unlawful, and a punishable offense. Under-"

"But him and that girl fought too!" Blake's sudden outburst caused Jaune to meet her eyes with a glare. The girl tried to avoid the look she was getting before Ozpin decided to finish what Glynda was saying.

"Let the adults finish speaking Ms. Belladonna." The comment caused the girl to shift her eyes towards the ground as the spectacled man continued to speak.

"Under normal circumstances, Ms. Belladonna would be expelled, and the rest of your team would undergo an evaluation to determine whether or not it'd be worth keeping you enrolled in my school." The flat tone he spoke with had the girls sweating a bit.

"But that won't be necessary thanks to that young man." Team RWBY wore shocked expressions as they turned to look at the now irritated blonde standing off to the side. Ozpin gave them a moment, before continuing to speak.

"If Jaune hadn't contacted myself and Glynda, making us aware of what was going to possibly transpire tonight, I'd have no choice but to expel Ms. Belladonna, and deliver her to the police." The girls all turned to see the former Arc ignoring them, opting to sit on a wooden crate and look through his scroll.

"But, thanks to him. I was able to organize and send what was left of the V.P.D. that wasn't corrupt to deal with the mess here. All the officers involved as well as the incapacitated White Fang will face justice for what happened here tonight, and as a bonus, he kept property damage to a minimum. And thanks to his partner, Ms. Belladonna didn't become a murderer." This caused a look of horror to appear on the bow wearing girl's face as she looked to her headmaster.

"One of the many grunts you severely injured tonight faced the very real possibility of death. You managed to nick his femoral artery at some point, and from what I was told, he came quite close to dying. If it wasn't for Jaune's dear friend applying sufficient medical aid, you would be in handcuffs too." At this, Weiss decided to try and voice another thought for the sake of argument, pointing at the blonde teen.

"B-but, what about him? He fought too, surely some of the injuries were caused by him." The older man shook his head at the girl before walking towards the leader of team JCKP and speaking to him.

"Pardon me young man, but may I borrow your firearm for a moment." The teen raised and eyebrow, before nodding and retrieving his weapon to hand it to his former headmaster. The man admired it for a moment, before pressing a button and flicking his wrist to the side, causing the cylinder to swing out.

He pulled the partially depleted dust cartridge out from where it sat and held it up for everyone present to see, studying it for a moment himself before he questioned the Schnee.

"Ms. Schnee, would you be able to identify what kind of dust this is?" The girl looked at it for a moment, before her eyes widened and she answered the man.

"Stun dust." The man loaded the cartridge back into the weapon before swinging the cylinder back into place with an expert motion of his wrist. He handed the weapon back to the blonde leader of team JCKP before he spoke.

"Precisely. And after examining their wounds, the paramedics informed me that the only major injuries that any of these men and women suffered were from a bladed weapon." The man gave the girl a moment to linger on his words as he went to a new topic.

"That aside, Torchwick escaped, and there is nothing that can be done about that. He is a graduated huntsman, and despite not being a violent criminal, is still quite dangerous."

At this, Sun held a hand up as he tried to give his input.

"Excuse me Sir, but me and Blake got some good licks in on him." The older man chuckled as he adjusted his glasses before replying.

"Mr. Wukong, I assure you that Roman Torchwick is not someone any of you even begin to _approach_ in either skill or strength. If he wanted to dispose you, he would have done so, in seconds." This sent a chill down the monkey faunus's spine as the white-haired man gave him a moment to ponder his words before speaking again.

"I should know. Once upon a time, he was one of my best students." This caused everyone present to look at him with shock, even Jaune. The Headmaster of Beacon turned around and began to walk to a waiting bullhead slowly as he spoke out to the group one last time.

"I've made more mistakes than any man, woman, and child on this planet," he paused before he sighed and finished speaking.

"and I'm beginning to wonder if maybe team RWBY is another one of them." With that, the man boarded the bullhead, leaving all the teens to think on his words. Glynda decided to speak out before standing off to the side with her arms crossed.

"Girls, you have five minutes to say whatever it is that needs to be said, and then you will be boarding that bullhead where we will discuss your punishments." The members of team RWBY looked at their former friend. For a minute nothing was said, before finally, Ruby delivered a harsh elbow to her partner. The girl met her leader's eyes, before relenting.

Stepping forward, the girl cleared her throat before she began to speak.

"Arc. I w-" The blonde cut her off before she could go any further.

"Jaune. Remember, I don't get to call myself an Arc anymore." The girl winced, before she amended rephrased and continued.

"R-Right. Thank you for preventing my teammate from finding herself expelled and/or facing criminal charges." It was simple and to the point, but the delivery made it impossibly more awkward. Jaune looked to the girl standing across from him, before he grunted out his response.

"Whatever." A pregnant pause hung in the air, everyone feeling the heavy tension permeating the space. Ruby looked between the two before she cleared her throat and leaped in between them, attempting to lighten the mode.

"Yay! We're all friends again!" Just as quick as she tried however, Jaune voiced his thoughts.

"Not so fast." It was Jaune's turn to have everyone's full attention as he continued.

"After everything that's happened, sorry to tell you Ruby, but there is **no** chance of us ever being friends again." His words caused the smile the girl was sporting to vanish as she looked at her first real friend sadly.

"But…why not…" The tall blonde just looked at her before he answered.

"Like I told you the other day, I'm happy with what I've found. But that doesn't mean we can ever go back to being how we used to be." The younger girl nodded her head in understanding, but it did nothing to spare her feelings or stop her tears from flowing freely down her face. The little reaper used her semblance to retreat onto the bullhead where less people would see her cry.

Blake, Weiss, and Yang all rushed to the bullhead to try and comfort their short leader. Glynda took measured steps towards her former student and met his eyes. Neither spoke before the blonde woman's eyes shifted to one of remorse.

"You…deserve an apology for how I conducted myself at your expulsion hearing." The blonde said nothing as he motioned for her to keep speaking.

"It should have been obvious to me when I saw you in combat that you had no formal training at the time, but I just chalked it up to you being incompetent. Then when the truth about your records was brought to me, I lost hope in you, and it was replaced with contempt." She sighed as she took of her glasses before continuing.

"Earlier today, your headmaster showed me highlights of your midterm practical exam. Watching how you carried yourself, how you led your team, how you'd grown; it made me realize that I failed you as a teacher, Jaune." The younger blonde studied her for a moment before he rubbed the back of his neck as he responded.

"I forgive you." The older woman was slightly thrown off, but before she could question his decision, Jaune continued.

"It must be nice though." The woman looked at the slightly pained expression the teen wore before questioning him.

"What?" She looked down and noticed the teen's fist was clenched so tight, he was shaking as he spoke.

"Getting to make as many mistakes as you want and always have some exception made for you." The woman stared at the younger man softly as he let out an indulgent sigh. The woman placed her glasses back on as she waited for the young man to continue, knowing the frustration he must be feeling at the moment.

"It's strange though, I thought I'd gotten over it. I really am happy with how my life is, but once I saw them again, I relived my last conversation with them. I guess a part of me still can't let what happened go...and I hate it. You, I can get. You were just doing your job, so I can't hold a grudge. But, I can't help being angry with them." Jaune felt his partner grab and hold his hand gently, making him sigh before smiling as he faced his former professor.

"I'll forgive them one day, but for now," He gave his partner's hand a gentle squeeze back, causing her to give him the most reassuring smile he'd ever received before he finished speaking.

"I'm not going to waste my second chance."

* * *

**(A/N)**

**Heya! Hope you like the chapter. ****Haven't written one around this length in a while, so it was nice to get a big one done.**

**Bonus points for those of y'all who know the character I basically used as a design for the arms dealer.**

**Besides that, wanna get some more people in the discord, but I'm thinking of ideas on how.**

**Oh, also, I bumped the story rating down to 'T', because there really isn't anything making it an 'M' at the moment, and we can just adjust it back when the time comes.**

**Think that's all I got for this A/N,**

**B.J.H.**


	18. Chapter 18-Built Walls

**(Chapter 18)**

The Sunday morning after the battle at the shipping yard, the four members of team RWBY found themselves settled nervously in Ozpin's office, seated across from their headmaster and the deputy headmistress who stood by his side.

The night prior, the man spared them a lecture from the stern disciplinarian by delaying their punishment hearing until the morning to come. That night was not one of relief however as the girls lay awake for hours, wondering what would be waiting for them once they found themselves in the clockwork office of Beacon's headmaster.

For a few minutes, the only sounds heard were of the headmaster's pen signing away through numerous documents, the occasional sip he would take from his mug, the faint ticking sound of one of the many clock themed devices in the office, and the audible gulp that was heard when any of the girls met the eyes of the patient man or the deputy headmistress.

After what felt like an eternity, Ruby took a deep breath as she gathered her nerves to speak but was interrupted before she could even begin by Ozpin.

"Today is a lovely day, is it not Ms. Rose?" The young lady met the calm brown eyes of her headmaster nervously as she decided to not leave the older man awaiting an answer.

"Y-Yes sir. Great day for-uh, uhm-studying! And-er-being upstanding students!" The white-haired man's mirthful smirk as he took a sip from his cup slowly, staring solely at her, caused the young Rose to wilt as her sister brought a hand to her face exasperatedly.

"So it is~ but let's not delay with your team's reason for being here." The man gently pushed his cup further to the side as he folded his hands together in front of him as he stared down the girls before addressing them.

"Ms. Belladonna, as you are the largest offender, allow me to begin with you." the tone the man spoke with was no longer one of amusement, and despite how softly the headmaster's words were spoken, there was a definite sense of authority laced in his words.

"Over the course of a weekend, you managed to break over a half-dozen laws and endangered not only yourself, but the lives of everyone present at the docks that night. Might I ask why?"

The girl stood from where she was seated, and after swallowing a gulp, began to explain herself.

"T-There's too much wrong in this world to just stand by and do nothing. Inequality, corruption; someone has to stop it." The stare she received didn't help her confidence, but he motioned for her to sit down before asking a question.

"Hmm, interesting. Allow me to show you something." The spectacled man began typing on the computer before finding what he was searching for and turning the screen around to face team RWBY. The video began to play, dated to one of the first weeks of this semester, and showed Cardin pulling Velvet's ears with team RWBY in the background doing nothing to help. He paused the video before addressing the faunus in front of him.

"If that truly is the case, then why did you do nothing to help Ms. Scarlatina?"

Blake began to sweat, and her teammates had the decency to looked ashamed knowing that they too could have helped the girl, but as the bow-wearing girl went to answer, the man held his hand up and resumed the video. The girls watched as a familiar knightly teen made his way over and tried to help the girl, before the video ended and Ozpin turned the screen back around.

"Why is it that the only one to help that girl was the weakest amongst you and your friends. At the time, any one of you could have put a stop to Mr. Winchester's actions, and yet-" Yang stood up abruptly with her eyes red after having watched the clip and tried to help her partner.

"And what about you and the other teachers? Why didn't any of you do anything to help her!" The man faced the angry teen with an otherworldly calm before he decided to respond.

"I run a school that turns children into huntsmen. While I do detest bullying, I saw no reason to help her." This drew incredulous looks from the girls, before the man decided to end the pause he left them on and continued speaking.

"Had she asked me or any teacher for help with the matter, it would have been handled. But she didn't, and it never got fully out of hand, nor would it have. Despite her pacifistic nature, Ms. Scarlatina is perfectly capable of handling herself, and if she deemed it necessary, could have ended Mr. Winchester's actions at any time with near no effort."

Yang couldn't contain herself and began to shout again. "Then why are you grilling my partner over-" A raised hand halted her from speaking, and Ozpin answered her unfinished question.

"That's simple Ms. Xiao Long. Your partner claims to want to rid the world of inequality, corruption, discrimination; but when faced with an opportunity to start, chose to turn a blind eye to maintain her façade as a non-faunus student."

The girl struggled to find an argument, but before she could, the white-haired man pulled his mug to himself and took a large sip. After placing the cup back to its resting spot, the man resumed speaking.

"We'll come back to what her punishment will be shortly, for now, let's talk about you Ms. Xiao Long." The red drained from the teen's eyes as she found the headmaster's gaze sapping her energy. She quietly sat down in her seat with her amethyst eyes desperately trying to find anywhere else to gaze.

"When I reviewed your application to my school, I knew you would be a troublemaker of sorts. Average grades across the board except for combat, where you shine brighter than most of your peers, even now." The girl perked up a bit, but still felt nervous as the older man's words didn't match the blank look he fixed her with before he continued.

"Matched only by your reckless behavior, issues with authority, and childlike temper." This managed to elicit a snigger from Ruby, who was promptly elbowed by her partner, causing the girl to stiffen up and return to her rigid posture.

"You destroyed a club in downtown Vale. Over what, I haven't the slightest idea, however, I will be contacting the owner and seeing why you deemed it necessary to attack a large group of civilians with your full strength." The girl seemed to slump in her chair as the spectacled man stood from his seat and walked to the wall of windows behind him. He stared at over Beacon and thought to himself for a moment before he sighed and began speaking.

"I've made my decision."

The man turned back around and let the pause hang in the air before he began to give his verdict.

"Ms. Belladonna, as I hope you are beginning to understand, you are extremely fortunate with how last nights events unraveled. However, I don't believe that regular detention matches your actions, so after extensive deliberation, I've decided you will become a teacher's aide for the remainder of your first year in addition to being a student," The faunus girl let out a small sigh of relief thinking about how much worse her punishment could've been, before Ozpin finished his sentence.

"to Dr. Oobleck." The girl's eyes widened in horror of the though of trying to keep up with the mile-per-minute man, and her bow seemed to flatten against her head as she dreaded what awaited her. The man seeing no attempt an argument being made, nodded his head before looking at Weiss and Ruby.

"Ms. Schnee, Ms. Rose" The girls stiffened up at being addressed before they answered their headmaster.

"Yes Sir?"

"You two aren't in any trouble, but I trust that you two will assist your teammates so that they don't fall behind during this transition?" The second of the Schnee children gave him a practiced response while her partner gave him a formless salute from where she sat, earning a hum of thought from the headmaster before he turned to Yang.

"And as for you Ms. Xiao Long."

The blonde brawler couldn't hold back the urge to gulp.

* * *

Meanwhile, Jaune and Penny lazed about in their hotel room, idly watching reruns of a sitcom that was older than either of them. Jaune was lying on his bed, flat on his stomach with his eyes half lidded, beginning to nod off. Sitting in the chair pushed next to the bed was his ginger partner, who had her attention split between observing the show and questioning her partner about jokes that occasionally went over her head.

A sudden series of raps against the door snapped the leader of team JCKP into attention as he hopped from his spot on the bed before making his way to the door. After opening the door and stepping to the side, General Ironwood made his way into the room, shifting slightly so that Jaune could move from behind him. Penny muted the television as the disciplined man began to speak.

"I know that originally the plan was to depart in a few hours to make our way back to Atlas, however after what transpired last night, Ozpin requested for me to extend our trip for another day so to meet with me again. So, we will be leaving for Atlas tomorrow instead." The innocent android raised her hand before voicing a question to the headmaster.

"Are friend Jaune and I allowed to explore Vale in the meantime then?" Despite the girl's attempts to mask her hopefulness, the desire to see more of the world beyond what she'd known was quite clear to the general. He brought his hand to his chin as he pondered the answer for a moment.

A minute later and the man brought both hands behind his back with a nod of his head as he answered the girl.

"After the way that you two handled yourselves last night at the shipyard, I'm willing to let you two explore on your own. Just stay together and stay alert." The man sounded exhausted, but his face betrayed no such fatigue. After leaving the room the two students shared, made his way to the vehicle waiting outside for him with his guard detail in tow.

Jaune met eyes with his partner who was almost shaking with excitement over no longer having to remain idle in their room. He gave a quick nod of his head towards the door along with a smile to his partner, who quickly made her way to the door.

She stood in the hallway bouncing on her feet as she watched her partner grab his scroll, wallet, and both of his weapons. Doing a quick once over in the mirror, he was satisfied with his appearance and gave himself a smile in the mirror before he left the room to join his partner, letting the door lock behind him.

"So, what do you want to do today Penny?" The girl made a thinking face as she skipped beside her partner on the sidewalk before she answered his question with one of her own.

"I'm not sure, what would you like to do Partner?" The blonde's face shifted to one of surprise before he looked around the various shops littering the streets of Vale while he thought.

On Sunday, in Vale at least, most places in town would traditionally open late and close early. A glance to his scroll revealed the time to be 12:27, so most, if not all businesses should be open by this point apart from bars and clubs. He thought for a few more minutes before he smiled and voiced his thoughts to the android skipping besides him.

"Well, our day out got interrupted yesterday, so why don't we make up for it today?" The girl's eyes brightened as did her smile while she listened to Jaune started to plan out the rest of their day as they walked.

"How about we start by going to the arcade? While we're there I can show you how I spent my days off during the summer before Beacon. Then after that, you can pick out where we should eat lunch at." The girl nodded energetically to her partner before she asked him a question.

"Will the arcade have the dancing game?" The blonde's face shifted to one of confusion before changing to one of clarity as he responded.

"Oh, you mean Dance Dance Retaliation?"

"That must be the one! I remember hearing friends Neon and Flynt talking about a dancing game they love to play at an arcade in Mantle." The blonde smiled as he nodded to her, eliciting a cheer of excitement from the girl as he suddenly had an idea.

"Say, we can still go to the arcade and dance, but how about after we eat, we go dancing for real tonight?" The girl's high spirits were infectious at the prospect and met her partner's smile with one of her own, before grabbing his hand, lacing his fingers with her own, and beginning to lead him down the sidewalk towards the arcade at a brisk pace.

"Wait, Penny, the arcade's back the other way!" Despite the embarrassment he felt, it didn't help the blush that'd crept onto his face, or prevent the laughter he had from his partner's enthusiasm.

* * *

Team PRVN was making their way back to their dorm after their training session in the Emerald Forest. Lately, they'd been focusing on trying to increase their team synergy by training against Grimm, but had been making little progress towards their goal.

Pyrrha and her fellow ginger teammate didn't hesitate to send spiteful glares towards the replacement member for their team, who ignored them and continued to keep her pace from where she walked to the side of the sole male of team PRVN. The Mistralian teen observed the other three members of his team from the side of his eye as he thought back to something that had happened rather recently.

**(Flashback- one week prior)**

The members of teams PRVN and RWBY were seated in Goodwitch's combat class with the exception of Nora, who was currently in combat with the leader of team CRDL. When the matchup was announced and the two students made their way to the locker rooms, no one was confident in any predictions as to who would be the victor.

The hammer wielding girl's friends all had faith in her ability to win against her opponent, however, after the knight-like teen pulled an unsuspected upset against Pyrrha, the student who was agreed to the be strongest of their year, there was a small bit of doubt in the back of everyone's minds.

The battle began the way any match that included Nora did, a volley of dust grenades being launched from Magnhild. Cardin knew what to expect however, and instead of using his shield to defend against the onslaught of artillery, used his weapon's dust crystal to propel himself to the side.

Landing in a roll, he counted three shots impacting the spot he'd previously occupied and began to run along the circle of the ring as his opponent began to target him. After the fourth and fifth shot were launched, the ginger male tightened his grip on his weapon and the dust crystal began to glow dimly.

Nora's eyes seemed to narrow whilst keeping her battle hungry grin. Still leading her target with her weapon, she aimed slightly closer to the area between herself and her opponent and fired her sixth shot, the result being a small dust cloud obscuring the two combatants' vision of each other.

Counting her sixth shot, Cardin let the dust crystal in his mace shine and launch him through the smoke where his opponent should be. As he passed through, his eyes widened as he saw that Nora had already shifted her weapon to her hammer form instead of trying to reload any grenades into her weapon.

Seeing her opponent flying towards her, she reared back to prepare what would no doubt be a monstrous swing. A moment to time the attack, and the girl swung Magnhild to try and send him out of bounds.

Cardin was having none of it however, and midflight, swung his mace in front of himself at a slightly down angle before letting loose a smaller explosion in the face of the ginger girl. The blast altered his trajectory enough that he narrowly avoided the imminent danger of her hammer and blinded her for a few precious seconds.

The leader of team CRDL landed slightly behind the girl who was already swinging her hammer with her left hand to try and clear the area around her. Cardin quickly pivoted and unleashed a swing of his own towards the girl's unprotected right side, while beginning to deploy his shield. Cardin's attack reached first and caused the girl's aura to drop significantly, drawing first blood.

The hit caused her to move slightly to the side, but gave her enough of a lurch that she was able to twist and grab Magnhild with both hands and slam the hammer head into the Jury, which hadn't finished fully deploying. The hit to his aura was slightly lessened on the initial hit, but the girl pulled the two triggers on the handle of the hammer in quick succession.

The result was the hammer slamming back into Cardin's shield gauntlet by the propelled swing from the back of her hammer causing the taller teen to buckle from the force slightly, and then the boy was sent sailing towards the edge of the ring by the explosion created from a grenade fired from the front of the hammer. As he was in the air, the black knight realized that his opponent must have reloaded two dust grenades into her weapon when he couldn't see her through the dust cloud she made.

Seeing the danger of a loss by falling out of the ring, the ginger male managed to right himself in the air before his feet remade contact with the ground, but his momentum kept him sliding towards the edge. He stopped himself at the edge of the ring, but his balance was slightly off, and he was beginning to fall forward.

He quickly released the Judge from its connected state to the rest of his weapon and aimed ahead of him and pulled the trigger multiple times. The recoil righted him just enough to save him from losing the match, and the teen let a sigh of relief leave him. He didn't have much time to recover however, as Nora was quick to press the advantage she'd gained in the match.

For a full minute, attacks were either parried, blocked, or dodged by both parties with a glancing hit being scored by the other here and there, a dangerous dance happening no more than ten meters from the edge of the combat arena. A dropkick from the shorter ginger of team PRVN sent the knight-like teen a bit away from her, and both students took the opportunity to check their aura gauges.

They were both beginning to edge into the solid yellow territory, and as Nora advanced on Cardin, the teen decided it was time to try and steal the win from the ginger berserker. He continued to step back as she ran forward, and as the foot he was backstepping on met nothing but air, he hoped he was in the best possible position since he couldn't check behind him, lest he ruin his plan.

The girl seeing that he had almost walked out of bounds, took a wide swing that would push finish the job and secure her win. The audience of students was cheering for both the participants, despite the glare their deputy headmistress was levelling them with.

As the hammer approached him, Cardin did something that surprised everyone. He collapsed his shield and let himself begin to fall backwards, letting the weapon begin to pass by him harmlessly, before he reached out with his right hand and got a firm grasp of the weapon near the head and pulled forward, bringing him and his opponent toward each other.

The shock and confusion clear on her face told him she'd be slow to react, and since he was safely out of danger from her weapon, he locked his arms around her back, twisted as he resumed his fall back to the ground only instead forcing Nora to ground outside the ring first as he fell on top of her.

"The match is over; Cardin Winchester wins by ring out!" The other members of team CRDL cheered for their leader who managed to best another of the top students in their year, while team RWBY and the short ginger's teammates were in shock over the desperate win the former bully achieved. As Ms. Goodwitch began to breakdown the match, giving criticism and praise to the two for the efforts, Vernal decided to voice her thoughts with a scoff.

"That was pathetic. That Cardin guy's been getting better, but this is just another fight that he had no reason to win. She's weak trash for letting him beat her like that." This drew the irritation of the pancake loving girl's friends, but a glower from the magenta-eyed member of her own team.

Vernal made no effort to hide her distaste towards the other members of her team, but the constant barbs towards his lifelong friend had long since made his patience with the girl grow thin. But what she'd said finally pushed Ren to act.

Ms. Goodwitch pushed up her glasses as she examined the list of students on her scroll tablet, before she spoke out to the class.

"Alright children, we have time for one last match. Would-"

"Excuse me." The comment drew the attention of all present to Ren who stood up with the bangs of his hair shadowing his eyes a bit as he spoke.

"I'd like to volunteer to fight." This threw the class for a loop. The sole male amongst the top two teams never volunteered himself, in any class. Ms. Goodwitch sifted through data on her device before seeing that the teen in fact hadn't fought in her class for almost a week.

"Very well then, please make your way down. Now, let me find you an opponent…" She began to scroll through names before Ren voiced his thoughts.

"I want to fight Vernal." Whispers began to circulate around the room. It was rare for Ms. Goodwitch to pair off teammates or their partners to fight in her class, but even rarer was it for someone to challenge either Pyrrha or her brutal partner Vernal. The girl in question gave the quiet boy a condescending gaze as she looked down upon him from her spot in the stands.

Ms. Goodwitch easily was able to tell that there had been animosity between the members of team PRVN, and after debating the request in her mind for a moment, nodded her head and motioned for the tan girl to make her way down to the arena as well. The bandit scoffed before she made her way to the locker rooms at the same time as her teammate, sneering at Nora as she passed her on the stairs.

As they disappeared into the gender respective rooms on either end of the floor, Pyrrha and her teammate who'd recently returned from the locker room began to talk with their friends on team RWBY.

"Do you think Ren is gonna be ok?" Ruby's worried tone was a tad loud, drawing looks from the students around them, but a glare from Yang quickly had everyone looking away from the group. Pyrrha looked down as she began to think about her two teammates that were about to fight as she spoke.

"Well…I have faith in Ren's abilities, but Vernal doesn't fight like any of us. She's ruthless and prefers to always be on the attack, pressing her opponent. Meanwhile, Ren prefers to either be on the defensive or to slip away and be unnoticed until he sees an opportunity to strike when an enemy's guard is down."

Nora put her chin on her crossed arms as she laid on the desk, seemingly in thought, and hummed uncommittedly in response to Pyrrha's evaluation. The group looked at the girl strange, unused to seeing her not hyper, and continued to talk about the two who were about to fight.

A hand began to shake Nora out of her thoughts causing her to look up in surprise as her teammate was shaking her asking a question.

"Are you alright Nora?" The spartan girl's worry was evident, but her teammate quickly waved her off, and the taller red head paused for a moment, before she decided to repeat her question.

"I had been asking you about how you think the fight will go, since you've known Ren the longest." The girl in question was silent for a moment but as she went to speak, the door to the males' locker room opened and Ren exited in his combat attire, taking slow measured steps towards the arena to wait on his opponent. No more than thirty seconds later, Vernal returned to the room in her combat attire, weapons in hand as she took confident strides towards the center of the arena.

"You sure you wanna do this Ren? You know I won't go easy on you." The opening jeers were just the beginning, and everyone knew it, but Ren wasn't one to fall to mind games so easily, and instead stood silently. Undeterred, Vernal continued to speak in hopes of scrambling her opponent's calm mind.

"Don't have anything to say, hmm? Even though you wanted to fight me," the girl spread her arms wide as if showing something on display as she continued speaking.

"Well here I am." Ms. Goodwitch called the match and neither contestant moved. Ren persisted in his silence as he watched the girl with eyes that betrayed no emotion. Vernal seeing that he still refused to rise to any of her taunts decided to walk lazily around the magenta-eyed teen as she continued to speak.

"Why have me come down here if you aren't gonna fight? Are you that much of a coward? You and that worthless partner of yours-"

"Vernal." Getting cut off made the girl smirk, feeling as if she finally had gotten into her opponent's mental state.

"What is it Ren, having second thoughts? Wanna surrender now?" The teen across from her finally lifted his head, and his eyes were the same emotionless mirrors that betrayed nothing, but a very visible frown present on his face.

"I'm going to give you a chance to apologize to Nora." The girl blinked, before she began laughing, having a hard time keeping her composure. This continued for a few seconds, before she finally was able to stop, and responded to her teammate.

"Well that's not going to happen, so what're you gonna do about it?" The girl finally fell into a combat ready stance, before she began to run at her opponent. With a masterful flick of his wrists, Ren's Stormflowers fell into either of his hands as he prepared for his enemy. While the two began their fight, Weiss made an offhand comment that caught Nora's attention.

"I'm amazed he isn't angry despite her incessant taunting." The crowd of students watched as Ren began to change his fighting pattern, and after a rather unforeseen parry, forced Vernal back and off balance, causing her to fall on her behind. The girl got to her feet angrily as her opponent turned himself gray, a clear sign of him using his semblance as he went on the offensive.

"That's not it Weiss." The rest of Nora's group turned to face her as she said that, and seeing their looks of confusion, decided to elaborate.

"It's not that Ren isn't angry; he's using his semblance to stay in control of his emotions." The girl looked to the side for a moment before finding a nice way of explaining it.

"You all know what Ren's semblance is and how it lets him hide from the Grimm, so the best way to think about it is this. You know how you can feel an emotion, know it's there, but you don't know what it is." The girl was met with nods of understanding and continued speaking.

"Well when Ren uses his semblance to mask his emotions, he can't feel those emotions. He knows that they are still there, and what they are, but that's it. It's what lets him always think rationally." The group seemed enlightened at the knowledge, but Nora ignored them to watch her partner begin to snatch the lead from his opponent while she thought to herself.

'It's scary though. How someone so calm, rational, and in control of themselves, can hide _so much_ anger.' The audience watched as Ren ducked under a swing before rolling to evade one of Vernal's lasers, before he let the weapon in his right hand fold itself back into his sleeve, before he blurred away in a burst of speed, appearing to the tan girl's side as he unleashed a savage aura enhanced palm strike just below her ribs and above her waist.

The ginger had her eyes on the fight happening in front of her but was instead replaying the last few months of dysfunction that her team went through due to their replacement member, before she thought about her former leader.

'I wonder if Jaune's the same as Ren, always hiding how angry he is. He was always so patient and kind, and before we found out about his transcripts, he was a good friend to us.' The berserker's eyes watched as Vernal landed a well-timed kick that sent Ren tumbling away before he recovered and sighed to herself as she glowered at the shorter-haired girl of her team.

'I want our old team back.'

**(Flashback end)**

The battle had ended with Ren's victory, something very few of those present expected. And ever since then, Vernal had refrained from insulting either him or his partner, and instead had been focusing them onto her own spartan partner. Any order that Pyrrha would give to her team now had to be echoed by Ren to Vernal if the bandit girl was to listen, but it was progress, however negligible.

The team continued walking before they ended up turning a corner and stumbling upon team RWBY, who looked rather upset. Immediately, Pyrrha moved towards her fellow leader and began to question her.

"Ruby? What wrong?" The red reaper was surprised to see her friend and gave the red headed spartan an unconfident smile while she rubbed the back of her head nervously as she began to speak.

"Well, it's a bit of a long story…" The girl saw that their sister team was waiting for an explanation and sighed, but before she could continue talking, her older sister added her input.

"How about this; I have to go to a club in vale tonight, and my team is coming with me. Why don't you guys go get cleaned up, and we'll all meet up at the bullhead docks at seven in a few hours? We can fill you in on everything that happened last night on the way to the club later. Sound good?"

Pyrrha turned to look at her team and see their reactions to the suggestion. Nora nodded her head up and down at the prospect of going to a club with friends while Ren gave a sigh and a nod, knowing that the outing would make his friend happy. Vernal refused to meet her eyes, as well as Yang's, but the hoplite teen had a suspicion that if the rest of the team went, the tan girl would come as well.

The scarlet-headed huntress pivoted back around and gave her sister team a smile as they began to walk towards the dorm to freshen themselves for a night at a club. As they fell into step with each other, Ruby decided to pipe up as they moved at a relaxed pace.

"Oh and uh, you'll never guess who we ran into..."

* * *

**(A/N)**

**Been a while!**

**Sorry for the delay, my state got hit by a _second _Hurricane. Knocked out power for a few days, and internet for a few more.**

**Another problem with getting this one out was the motivation to choose to write over gaming and other time sync's. Along with that, it's hard to write for any character's that aren't directly interacting with Jaune, with some exceptions.**

**Anyway, I'm sure you know what's coming, so lemme go work on that!**

**Another thing! Is it 'Atlassian' or 'Atlesian'? I only ask, because the robots that are a part of Ironwood's military force are called 'Atlesian Knights', needed to hear what the consensus is.**

**If you wanna join me in talking about RWBY, fanfic ideas, or anything really, join me in our discord.**

**/dSbQbK7FTy**

**Besides that, hope you enjoy the chapter!**

**B.J.H.**


	19. Chapter 19-Reparations

**(Chapter 19)**

The sunset over Vale was assisting in the day's transition from the late afternoon into the early evening. The lamp posts scattered around the sidewalks of the city began to faintly glow as they all slowly came to life.

The sounds of cars and trucks was beginning to be accompanied by the growing amount and volume of individual conversations, along with the energy from bars keeping their doors open wide to welcome patrons.

Though, no conversation was as loud or as pure as the interaction Jaune and his partner were sharing. As they walked down the street stumbling in their steps as they attempted to reenact the dance moves they'd performed during their time at the arcade, the various older couples they passed couldn't help smiling as they watched the pair of teens ignore the rest of the world.

Eventually, the two began to fall into a calm stride as they walked together towards their destination. As Jaune led them onwards, his partner decided to start another conversation.

"Best Friend Jaune, how is it that you are such a skilled dancer?" The boy chuckled as he began to talk about himself to his ginger-haired partner.

"I had seven sisters growing up Penny. Being one of the middle kids, I got teased by my older sisters, and had to take care of the younger ones. And growing up, anytime there was a dance, my older sisters would use me to practice, which of course made the little ones want to dance too." His response caused the shorter girl to raise a finger to her chin in thought before she continued her questioning.

"What other skills do you have?" This caused the boy to think hard for a half minute before he nodded his head and began to list them off.

"Well, my parents made sure that all of us knew how to cook and clean, properly. I also know how to sew, garden, drive, give first aid, and a few other things for around the house, but my older sisters each had their own hobbies that they'd pull me into from time to time." The girl nodded in response, before she fired another question to the tall blonde.

"I've read that siblings often embarrass each other, is that true." The blue-eyed teen seemed to blush and scratch his cheek as he remembered some of the things he'd been subject too by his sisters.

"Y-Yeah. We all used to pull pranks on each other, even the youngest ones got in on it sometimes. Besides that, when I was smaller…" He trailed off, mumbling as he relived those moments.

"What did they do Partner?" The girl's curious face was cute, and her leaning towards him made him gulp, but before he could think too much on it, he was already answering her question.

"…they'd dress me up in girl's clothes, do my nails, my hair, a few times they even put make-up on me…" The girl imagined her partner with all those modifications done to him and began to giggle into her hand as her partner groaned into his hands.

"I apologize Jaune, but it's humorous to imagine you wearing makeup." The girl let a few more small laughs escape herself before managing to regain her composure as her partner seemed to be pouting slightly from her side. As they continued to walk, Jaune's eyes lit up as he saw their destination for the night. He urged the girl to increase her pace, and within another few minutes, arrived outside Junior's club.

"Well, we're finally here, so are you ready to dance?" The girl met his energy with her own and despite having been led there by her partner, was pulling him inside to enjoy the evening. One thing Jaune noticed, and was all too glad to, was that his android partner didn't seem against being at Junior's club.

As they made their way inside, they could practically feel the energy coursing through the room. The strobing lights and lasers, the D.J. in his iconic bear costume lost to the music, and the crowd of people on the dance floor enslaved to the sound. Jaune looked to his side and saw his partner's eyes wide with excitement as she looked around, causing him to chuckle as he gently pulled her along towards the bar.

A tap on the shoulder to Melanie and Miltia got them to swivel around on their seats, and their expressions brightened a bit seeing Jaune. The tall blonde took a seat to the left of the girls as Junior made his way over to them, while his partner opted to stand behind them and admire the happenings in the club.

"Hey kid, glad to see you're alright." The older man's tone was a mix of relief and something else he couldn't place.

"Thanks H-" Not but a second after he opened his mouth to respond, he was given a rather firm knock on the top of his head from the larger man.

'So, frustrated; got it.' The blonde watched as the larger man gave him a long stare, before he sighed and began cleaning a glass.

"…I probably deserved that." Junior simply fixed Jaune with a deadpan look that spoke volumes before he responded.

"What you did was real dangerous kid, you could've been killed." The blonde looked to his side and noticed the twins glaring at him with a twinge of sadness hidden in their expressions at the thought of their friend dying. He had the decency to look apologetic as nothing was said between the group for a moment, before Junior craned his neck to the side until an audible pop was heard.

"Whatever. All that matters is that you're still breathing, but I don't want you doing anything dangerous like that unless you have to, ya hear?" The blonde looked down at his hands for a moment before he answered the black-haired man.

"I know, and I promise to try not to get myself killed." The blonde's response was met with a retort from the bar owner.

"Only try?" The blonde let a tiny smile creep onto his face as he spoke back.

"I do want to be a huntsman, kinda an occupational hazard." The girls to his side scoffed while the man across from him only shook his head.

"Just as stubborn as Roman…sit tight kid, I'm gonna fix you a drink."

"Hei, you know I'm not big on alcohol." The large man gave the leader of team JCKP a dry look as he began to demonstrate his craft, and within a minute, a drink was placed in front of Jaune.

"I know, that's why there ain't no alcohol in it." The blonde looked at it suspiciously before he shrugged his shoulder and took a sip. His eyebrows raised a bit, and he went for another sip.

"Hei, what is this?" The large man chuckled seeing Jaune act so impressed before he told the teen.

"It's just lemonade, sweet tea, and a little bit of club soda for the fizz." The blonde looked surprised and decided to ask a question.

"Since when do you have sweet tea?" The man smirked as he gave his answer.

"I distinctly remember a blonde country bumpkin complaining about how we didn't have any sweet tea in the city. So, I decided I'd start making some in case he ever came by. Funny, huh?" The blonde looked rather embarrassed before he finished off the rest of his drink and hopped up from his seat, ready to take his partner to the dance floor.

"Kid." The blonde and his partner turned from where they were going to see the large man looking at them.

"Why'd you come by here tonight?" The blonde looked his partner who looked back at him with a small smile before he answered.

"We just wanted to have a good time." Junior looked at the partner pair, before smiling fondly and speaking to them one last time.

"Good answer. Go have fun you two."

Jaune and Penny looked to each other before they made their way onto the dance floor. As the crowd of people were moving in rhythm to the music, the ginger android and her best friend found themselves a spot to dance together. Jaune let his body loosen for a moment before he began to sway and move to the beat.

The green-eyed girl watched her partner begin to find his groove before she smiled and closed her eyes and began to move in place across from her partner, albeit clumsily. Within a few minutes, Jaune began to speed up his movements a bit, drawing the attention of his partner, who marveled at the fluidity of her partner's dancing.

"Hey, fancy seeing you both here!" A familiar voice called out loud enough to catch the pair's attention, and they turned to see a familiar blonde monkey faunus making his way towards them.

"Friend Sun? What a pleasant surprise!" The Vacuan teen shared a large grin with the short ginger and met his fellow blonde huntsman student in a friendly handshake, before he quickly fell into dancing along with the two.

Penny was impressed to see Sun able to keep up with her best friend, who she knew to be a stellar dancer, and vocalized a question to the two.

"Excuse me friends, but are blonde's naturally good at dancing?" The innocence behind the question made the two blonde's look at each other before shrugging and sharing a hearty laugh. The music began to slowly shift to another genre, the song carrying a little bit more energy than previously, and the ginger could only marvel as her two friends began to move accordingly.

Normally, Penny would want something like dancing to be a skill she learned herself, but instead, she took a few minutes time to record the various movements happening around her. After she was done, she stopped her somewhat clumsy movements and began to move more fluidly, like her partner, but with a confidence and expertise that she previously didn't have.

Before long, the Malachite twins joined them as the group began to draw the attention of the other patrons on the dance floor. Seconds turned to minutes, and the time began to fly by as the blonde knight and his friends ignored everything else but enjoying their night.

Almost an hour of nonstop movement later, the music began to fade into something slower to give the night's guests an opportunity to dance to something more relaxed. Most people didn't come to Junior's club alone either, so the D.J. decided to go with a song that would let couples or 'just friends' get a little closer, and watched as the colors around the club shifted to a more passionate tone.

Sun excused himself and made his way to the bar to get himself a drink, the twins following him with a modicum of interest as he hadn't hit on either of them during their time dancing as a group.

Meanwhile Jaune and Penny were still on the now much emptier dance floor, and the two kept slowly getting closer as they were dancing, until they accidentally bumped into each other. For a moment, they both stood still, not saying a thing. Penny moved a stray bang of hair back into place as she felt the eyes of not only the crowd, but her partner who was in extremely close proximity.

They both blushed a bit, before they both donned shy smiles and began to dance, with Jaune occasionally reaching out to grasp one of Penny's hands and twirl her around. Near the end of the song, something came over the blonde, and when he spun the smaller girl around, he pulled her close so that her back was to his chest as they swayed together softly.

As the music began to fade to the next song, the android turned to face her partner, and for a moment, everything else seemed to just disappear. Neither of them could hear anything save for the other's breathing, and the edges of their vision as they looked at each other seemed to blur everything else out.

For a moment, both teens with half-lidded eyes seemed to move their faces closes closer. As they got closer, they seemed to both remember where they were, and separated, though both were reluctant. The two shyly looked away from each other, and for a moment, Jaune's eyes caught sight of the Junior, the twins, and Sun all giving him their own looks, having witnessed what had almost occurred.

The blonde turned a deeper color of red then what should be possible, and when he finally met the eyes of his partner, he noticed that she was having the same problem. They smiled to each other again, before they began laughing quietly to each other, but as they prepared to start moving to the music again, the doors to the club opened.

* * *

The two strongest teams among Beacon's first years had just left the bullhead docks and were travelling to an unnamed club downtown at a good pace. During their time on the aircraft, Blake had begun filling in team PRVN on what their weekend had been like thus far, leaving out some more sensitive details such as Blake's past, or rather, her full past.

As they approached the unmarked building they were heading to, they could see the line of people waiting to get in, and the faint sound of music was growing more audible the closer they became. Eventually they made their way to the main door and were halted by a bouncer that had been standing vigilant, who became slightly uncomfortable at the sight of the blonde brawler, who decided to handle the talking for her and her friends.

"Well? Are you gonna let us in?" She had an impatient look on her face, but the bouncer swallowed and regained a semblance of his composure before pulling out a fancy pocketbook from the inner breast pocket of his suit jacket.

"…You got a name Blondie?" The girl gave the older man a cocky grin before she began to reply.

"Yang Xiao Long, but you can call me Si-"

"You ain't on the list." The girl clearly hadn't been expecting to be cut off, as her eyebrows raised up before what had been said began to dawn on her.

"But I'm supposed to be here to see Junior tonight!" The man just kept giving her the uninterested, though slightly cautious look as he answered her remark.

"If you ain't on the list, you gotta wait in line just like everybody else." The girl grit her teeth as her eyes flashed red, before she took an intimidating step towards the bouncer.

"Now you listen here pal, if you know what's-" Before she could continue making her threat, her younger sister stomped on her foot, causing the taller girl to yelp in surprise before she was pulled towards the back of the line by the red reaper.

"Sorry Sir! She won't be a problem, she's just, uh, grumpy!" The little girl's enthusiasm received a deadpan look from the bouncer, who just watched them walk away from him before he looked down to the pocketbook in his hands, and what was written in it.

'Expecting a teenage girl, wannabe huntress, to swing by tonight. Same blonde from a few months ago that busted everyone and the club. Yang Xiao Long, either let her in, or feel free to make her wait in line.' The man rubbed his ribs remembering where he'd been injured by the lilac-eyed girl months ago, before smirking at his small bit of retribution.

As the minutes flew by at the back, with a person or group ahead of them in line occasionally being let into the club, it was Nora who broke the silence first.

"Hey Blake?" The bow-wearing girl looked up from her book and began to speak with the hammer wielder.

"Yes?" The normally energetic girl seemed introverted for a moment as if there was something she didn't want to bring up, but eventually found her nerve to ask.

"Can I ask you something? It's about Jaune." This caught the attention of most of the group, Vernal included for once, as his name wasn't spoken often amongst them.

"Sure, go ahead." The girl nodded before she seemed to think about what she wanted to ask before she finally spoke again.

"How was he?" The faunus girl and her leader both wore face of remorse and sadness, while the yellow and white themed members of her team were harder to identify.

"He was happy, at least until we ran into him and his friend." The black-haired beauty crossed her arms and furrowed her brow in thought as she began speaking again.

"Everything about him changed Nora. His posture was confident, he changed his outfit, and his body was showing the results of consistent training. Also…" The girl paused before turning to address the entirety of the group before she continued.

"I don't know what he's been doing since he got kicked out of Beacon, but he was able to hold his own against the White Fang fine from what Sun told me he saw and the little bits I was able to see." This caught the members of the former team JNPR by surprise, but before any of them could voice it, Vernal decided to finally speak up.

"Hey, I know this Jaune guy was on my team before me and that he faked his transcripts and got kicked out, but why are you all so shocked that he handled a few members of the White Fang when most of them don't even have aura?"

As no one stepped forward to answer, Pyrrha gave a sigh and prepared to speak, but no one noticed the narrowing of the eyes Blake fixed the girl with as she wondered how the tan girl was privy of that information.

"Jaune was the original fourth member of our team," The hoplite teen bit her lip before letting out a breath and calming herself before continuing.

"and he was chosen to be our leader. He came to Beacon, with no training and no aura, to try and be a hero, and then was chosen to lead us;" The girl then motioned to her team as her as she kept on.

"people who have been trained for their entire lives and sacrificed or lost so much more than he could even begin to understand. But him? He cheated and stole a spot from someone who might've been worthy of it; someone that wouldn't put us more at risk than we already would be."

The tall red-head's feelings on the matter were extremely obvious, but as the group stood in the silence following the Argosian girl's monologue, the response from the pixie-cut sporting bandit stunned everyone.

"I don't see the problem?" Everyone just stared blankly at the girl, who began to grow irritated at the looks she was getting, but seeing that a few members of her group were likely about to begin firing off questions or inputting opinions she didn't care about, she decided to put in her earphones and ignore everything else around her.

Time continued to fly as the tense atmosphere among the group began to settle, before finally, they were given the chance to enter the club.

The door opened and the group stood all together, most of them taking in the atmosphere for the first time with the exception of Yang, who had her eyes scanning the bar until they found Junior. The girl sighed dramatically before turning to address her team.

"Alright gang, try and enjoy tonight, I have to go talk with the guy who runs this place, get a drink, and then hit the dance flo-" The girl was cut off by the a nudge to the side from her partner, and she studied the faces of her peers before she realized there eyes weren't focused on her, but on something behind her.

Turning to survey the club for what it was that captured their attention and silence, she discovered what was responsible for their shock.

Or rather, who.

Yang's own expression soured as her sister's saddened, but Weiss and Blake where more concerned with the glare from the leader of team PRVN aimed at a familiar blonde teen who was on the dance floor.

On the floor, the girl that Jaune was most definitely dancing with, caught sight of them standing at the entrance; Pyrrha specifically, and her face changed to one of surprise, and as her partner turned to see what caught her attention, it turned to one of worry.

Again for the blonde, the music began to fade into the background, the other patrons seemed to just evaporate, though this time for less pleasurable reasons, leaving just himself, Penny, and his former group in its entirety. The tension in the stare the two former partners held was loud, and almost seemed to make the temperature rise.

The champion girl's hands tightened into fists before unclenching several times as she narrowed her eyes at the blonde, while Jaune was beginning to panic slightly. He started to sweat, and the hand that was holding onto Penny's own began to tremble quickly, but he refused to let the scarlet haired girl know what her presence was doing to him.

Penny did a quick evaluation of her dear partner, and found that despite his façade of calm, he was under extreme duress. So, she set her decision in stone and turned her blonde best friend around and pressed her forehead and the tip of her nose to Jaune's own, breaking him out of his stupor as her lively emerald eyes were but a mere centimeter away from his own sapphire orbs.

Unbeknownst to the knightly teen, the image painted by him and his partner sparked a monumental misunderstanding of what had just occurred to his former friends, drawing looks of bewildered surprise from most, and causing Pyrrha to grit her teeth as the handles to the club doors began to glow black and warp as her emotions seeped out.

"P-Penny? What are you-" The boy wasn't blushing despite the close proximity the girl was exhibiting, but before he could continue, he was interrupted.

"_Shhhh_. There's nothing to worry about Jaune." The girl moved her hands to the sides of the taller teen's head as she whispered to him, and the blonde tried again.

"But…I'm not-I can't see them Penny…I-" The girl studied him as the stood together. Thankfully, the dark lightening of the club plus the strobing lights hid his face from those around them, and the loud music was covering their conversation.

The teen looked and sounded weak, as if all blonde's energy had been drained from him. The girl shushed him again before she spoke to him quietly.

"Do you want to leave Partner?" The teen said nothing but just nodded his head as it was against her and let her pull him along towards the bar where Junior was, away from the eyes of his former team and friends. The man noticed the state the boy was in and immediately became concerned, but upon seeing the obvious air of protection that the girl had for the boy, pointed her towards the staff entrance so that they could leave and not be seen.

Hei watched as the two slipped out of the door at the end of the counter that would let them leave uninterrupted, before turning to see the blonde that wrecked his bar months ago approaching begrudgingly. The man donned his trademark scowl as he began to perpetually clean a class as the girl sat down across from him.

For a moment nothing was said before Junior made the girl her preferred drink, a strawberry sunrise, and slid it to her wordlessly. The girl looked at him and the drink, before cautiously reaching out and taking the drink, beginning to take measured sips as she kept her eyes on the bar owner as he began to speak.

"As I'm sure you know, I got a call from your headmaster asking about a blonde that did a number on my guys and wrecked my bar. Me and my crew are still holding grudges over what happened, ya know that right." The question was rhetorical, but even despite her sarcastic nature, the blonde knew better than to offer up a sarcastic remark.

"But since Ozpin asked me what I thought should be done, the twins came up with a great idea." Yang glanced at the two girls who were sitting together a few seats down before they both poked their tongues out at her. Feeling the familiar heat associated with her semblance, the girl chose to put her attention back towards the man in front of her.

"Ya see Blondie, trying to get you expelled wouldn't change anything. Maybe it happens and you get the boot, but knowing you, you'd probably just go to a different academy. So instead, you're going to be working off the debt you racked up for sending a bunch of my boys to the hospital and busting up my club,"

The girl refused to let anyone see the displeasure the news brought her, having partially expected something like this when she was ordered to report here by her headmaster.

"for the next four years." The girl's eyes flashed red, as she stared at the man ahead of her, though to her surprise, the man didn't flinch or back down, and instead continued talking.

"Kid, even if you worked here for the next **twenty** years, you still wouldn't pay off what you owe. This way, you won't have any marks on your record, you get to stay in your little huntsman school, and my crew gets to watch you squirm. Everyone's satisfied." The girl just nodded grimly as Junior looked down towards her with his stony expression.

"You'll only ever work on the weekends when I need extra hands, but if I call for your to be here, your ass better be here Blondie. Anyway, go with Melanie and Miltia to the back, they'll help you find something to wear when you're here." The girl looked mortified at the prospect of having the seductively dressed twins pick her outfit, before she was led to the back by the white and red themed girls.

Shortly after the blonde was led to the back, Vernal found herself sitting at the bar and ordering a drink as she began to think to herself about the blonde that her group seemed to nearly have a collective stroke at seeing.

He was tall, but not unnaturally so, and had lush blonde hair above ocean blue eyes. He had muscle, not those of one who'd been training their entire lives to fight, but those of someone who was dedicated to strengthening themselves.

If asked, Vernal wouldn't deny that she'd been undressing the former member of her team with her eyes. Because to her, the blonde she saw looked similar to the blonde the leader of her tribe kept a secret picture of. And Vernal idolized Raven, so to her, it was only natural that she should look for a lover like the one of her leader. Unfortunately, the teen looked to be taken by the ginger he disappeared with.

Before she could continue the line of thought she was slowly descending to, her magenta-eyed teammate appeared next to her asking a question.

"Have you seen Nora?"

* * *

Jaune and Penny walked slowly towards the hotel hand in hand, under the moonlit sky, ready to unwind from what had happened at the tail end of their night. Jaune had seemed to calm down and even smile a few times once they were well away from the club where an unexpected reunion had occurred.

Suddenly, Penny stood up straight and stopped walking, before turning around and speaking out towards the empty corner and sidewalk.

"Who's there?" Jaune looked surprised as the sudden outburst from his partner, but after a few moments of silence, a figure came out from around the corner and made her way towards the blonde slowly.

The berserker's steps were loud as she tentatively came closer to the knightly teen, who seemed concerned about what would possibly follow, before the unthinkable happened.

A sob escaped the girl, and once close enough, she launched herself at her former leader, who instinctively caught her in his arms and held as she cried into his chest. Her unintelligible wailing made the blonde feel something he couldn't describe, but whatever it was, it didn't feel good. And instead, he just stood their and let Nora's tears seep into his new clothes as his partner, unsure of what else to do, began to rub her fellow ginger's back comfortingly.

After nearly five minutes of close proximity with the hammer-wielder, the girl let herself detach from the taller teen, eyes red and puffy with tear stains marking her face, before refusing to let a silence grow between them.

"J-Jaune…I-I am so sorry. I can't even tell you how, how-" The girl's tears started again as she began to shake and become less understandable. Jaune let it all exit her system before he looked to her with tears at the corners of his own eyes.

"You know, the three of you really hurt me Nora…" the girl was quick to wrap Jaune in a hug, apologies spilling out of her faster than water from a faucet. The blonde didn't let this one last however as he gently pushed the girl away from him. The two stood across from each other silently, with the orphan girl looking down at the ground between them, too ashamed to meet the blonde's eyes, before the knightly teen did something she didn't expect.

He sighed as he pulled her close to him and gave her a gentle hug like the ones he used to give to his sisters right after a fight. Jaune observed her for a long moment, feeling how his former teammate trembled and clung to him before he came to terms with something whispered out to the girl.

"…Apology…" The blonde took a moment to pause and debate if he was sure in what he was about to say, before continuing his response to the girl.

"Accepted."

That night was one of the only time's Nora Valkyrie ever cried because she was happy.

* * *

**(A/N)**

**Hey guys, finally got past the first of the reunions between the Jaune and his old friends, and that means we're really making some headway in the story.**

**Sorry this one took a bit to get finished, I wanted to make sure things were coming off the way I wanted them to. A lot of rewriting went into this one.**

**I didn't put songs or anything into the story so that it wouldn't throw off the experience, but if you have a song you want to listen to while you read this chapter, I was listening to "Set Me Free", (which I don't own) when they were beginning to dance, and "Hide", (Which I also don't own), when it was just Jaune and Penny, but since I didn't actually add anything, imagine or listen to whatever you want while their in the club.**

**Also, "My Favorite Part", (Spoiler, I don't own this one either), is also a great listen during Jaune and Penny's time on the floor together.**

**Anyways, aside from that, Next chapter, we'll be back in Atlas, then after that, the last arc for season 1 will begin, but all things considered, that bit will be shorter than the this arc and the midterm arc, though no less important.**

**Besides that, Happy Holidays, and join the discord! If you join, we can talk about story ideas, goof off, and I might even talk with y'all as I write the new chapters before they come out! **

** /95NBjGd**

**B.J.H.**


	20. Chapter 20-Under the Surface

**(Chapter 20)**

Two weeks after the attempted shipyard heist, the gentleman thief was keeping a low profile while pondering over the decisions he'd made as of late.

There was zero doubt that what transpired at the docks had reached Cinder, though possibly fortunately for the cigar chain-smoker, she'd yet to make any attempt to contact him, not even so much as a short scroll text. Having only ever spoken to the black-haired femme fatale a handful of times, Roman hadn't been able to build a complete profile on the woman yet, but he didn't need to.

Roman let out a heavy breath of smoke as he rose from the soft sofa he'd been sitting on in the dark. He stood still for a moment as he was captured by his thoughts, staring unfocusedly at the smoke rising from the lit end of his cigar floating towards the ceiling, before moving the lit tobacco away from him and letting it rest in an ashtray on the cocktail table in front of the sofa.

He reached down as he began to slowly make his way towards the sole source of light in the room and procured the untouched glass of scotch he'd made for himself however earlier, carrying it with him as he approached the penthouse window.

Within seconds that passed like minutes, the self-made man stood as he looked down upon the city of Vale. Flashing lights of every color you could imagine filled the streets, lined buildings, and lit up the city so late at night that when you looked towards the sky, you couldn't see but only the biggest, brightest of stars if you were lucky.

And Roman hated it.

He took a slight draw from the glass of scotch, and welcomed the smooth, warm feeling it gave him on the way down. Soon enough, his signature hat found its way to his head, as he made his way out to the balcony. He was met with a gust of Vale's November air, and smiled as he could see his breath on the winter air while looked over the city, though this time with a certain fondness.

Truly his was a love-hate relationship with city life.

But he'd sat in the dark paranoid of an assailant or the authorities with his cane in hand long enough over these last couple weeks, and knew that what he needed was a chance to think, a chance to rest, and most importantly, a chance to come up with an exit-strategy for himself and his ice cream colored partner.

His scroll vibrated and he reached into his pocket to retrieve it, looking at the message sent to him by his partner with a small smile. He sent a short message back telling her to make her way to him, before storing the device back from where he'd retrieved, before taking out a pair of compact binoculars and a wireless earpiece that was synced with his scroll.

The view from the penthouse he'd gave him a perfect vantage point over where he wanted to observe, and with it being so dark, and him so high, there was little chance of him being seen by anyone. The reason this hotel was the perfect choice for him to wait and watch was that his balcony faced North-East, which gave him a perfect view of the shipyards and ports of Vale.

His scroll began to vibrate rhythmically, and he placed the earpiece into place before pressing a button that answered the call he was receiving, already knowing who was on the other end.

"Roman."

"Cinder, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

Despite the ease with which the flame-headed criminal slipped into his suave tone, the expression he wore didn't match the words he spoke as he adjusted the focus on the binoculars to have a clear visual on Cinder and her two followers.

"Let's not play games Roman: we've succeeded in infiltrating Haven and building our cover. I decided that we'd transfer over to Beacon a tad earlier than anticipated."

The classy criminal couldn't help the humming noise that left his mouth as he voiced a thought to his unwanted boss.

"I wonder, won't that look just a tad suspicious?" The question was intended to probe about the situation subtly, but Roman had little doubt that the woman on the other end of the line knew that.

"It would, if it wasn't for the other squads that we are arriving with. There's neither too many nor too few of us arriving this early that we'd draw excess attention towards ourselves."

Something had the intimidating woman impatient he realized. The man watched as the squad stood in a line that led to an official's booth so that they could have their identification papers verified. The squads they were arriving with didn't seem altogether special, save for maybe two teams.

"Now, onto more important matters; the dust. Are you on schedule to meet the amount of dust I requested?"

'Requested she says.' The thought was followed by a mental scoff as he focused back on the conversation at hand.

"We were scheduled to be at sixty percent of the quota by New Year's Eve." The man paused as he stopped speaking for a moment to take a drink from his glass of scotch, his eyes barely ever having left the group.

"And now?"

"We are at…roughly eighty-five percent, if you round down that is." There was a brief silence that followed due to Neo, Cinder, and her followers offering their papers to the official at the booth, and once they were far enough out of earshot, the half-maiden returned her attention to the man on the other end of the scroll call.

"Oh Roman~ I do hope you're not embellishing your efforts to save face, especially after your failure of a heist two weeks ago." The woman's attempt to either get a predictable reaction from him failed, and he couldn't help the bit of cheek that entered him when he corrected the information she had.

"Why would I embellish anything? What the news makes public, and what actually happens are two separate things entirely." Cinder could practically hear the smug face that the thief wore and wanted nothing more than to strangle the life out of him at the moment, but instead chose to keep her composure.

"For your sake, I hope what you're promising won't disappoint. Since I'm in Vale, I'll have plenty of time to check on your labor." The man simply hummed in response to her threat as he glowered at the sadistic woman through the lens of his binoculars.

"Keep me updated on your progress towards reaching my goal, and next time, ask permission before you attempt to do something so public. I'll be in tou-"

"Actually Cinder, we have more business to discuss." The ill-tempered woman frowned, which brought Roman a smile as he had the pleasure of seeing it from a safe distance away.

She was clearly not pleased at being interrupted mid-sentence, but the classy criminal couldn't care less, he had something he had to do.

"Oh~ and what would that be?" There was a tinge of curiosity in her tone, and after the briefest of sips from his liquid courage, he answered.

"I believe we need to renegotiate our…arrangement."

The woman stopped walking causing her followers to mimic the action, and the thief watched as a near unnoticeable glow began to emit from the clenched hand at her side. Her bangs covered her eyes from his sight as her head tilted forward a bit.

"Then, would you happen to have somewhere in mind to meet. I'd love to explain terms in person."

"No no no, that won't be necessary. You see its quite simple; come December, Neo and I are going to be taking a bit of time off. We'll be leaving Vale for a few weeks to attend to some…personal affairs of mine. In exchange, I'll get you an extra half as much dust for whatever it is that you have planned. Sounds quite fair to me."

There was a brief silence before he was met with a lowered voice devoid of any form of patience.

"It seems I didn't make myself quite clear when we first met. Allow me to make it easy for you to understand. I don't make deals. If I tell you do something, you will do it. If you don't…well, what happened to your leg will seem like a slap on the wrist. You will stay in Vale and obey my commands. Do you understand?"

"Unfortunately Cinder, that isn't going to work for me. You threatened to kill me and my partner if we didn't work for you, and you made it all to clear that you weren't going to pay us. Then, you made Neo stand by and watch while I was,"

A slight shiver went through the man as he recalled what happened to him, before he gripped the binoculars a tad too tight, shattering the glass within as he continued to speak.

"well, you remember. And as of late, I've been working on and off the clock to bring in the dust."

"And you're point? You're beneath me Roman."

In response the man grit his teeth, before taking a deep breath to calm himself and letting the destroyed binoculars fall next to his feet on the balcony.

"If you're going to be unreasonable…then I suppose you don't need any of the dust I've worked so hard to collect up till now. I wonder how you'll manage…"

"Are you threatening me Roman."

"No, I'm negotiating with you. I have something you need, and what I want costs you nothing. I'm even offering to procure extra of the goods just so that I can take the holidays off. If anyone's threatening anyone, it's you."

There was a moment of silence, and the thief could hear bits and pieces of the ill-tempered woman explaining what was happening to her followers. He waited patiently as he downed the rest of his glass until he was met with his answer.

"Fine, you two can have your little…_vacation. _But, you will deliver double the amount of dust we agreed upon, just an additional half won't suffice."

The man smiled devilishly on his side of the call, satisfied that he'd gotten the deal he'd been aiming for. Knowing the woman's parasitic nature from the few interactions they'd had, Roman knew that she'd want more than whatever was being offered in exchange to let him off the leash for even a few days. So, he purposefully low-balled his offer to an extra half, predicting that she'd demand double, which was exactly what he was aiming for.

Roman had been in the game of crime for more than just a few years, and the one thing he always did was trust his gut. And his gut was telling him that if him and Neo finished this job, they weren't likely to walk away from it scot-free, if at all.

"A pleasure doing business with you."

With that, the flame-haired man ended the scroll call and sent Cinder the location of the warehouse he would have the dust collected to so far sent to, before taking out his earpiece before walking back into the living room of his penthouse. As he pulled the curtains, he heard the telltale sound that accompanied his partner's semblance, and let a rare fond smile cross his features as he turned to regard her.

"Good to see ya Neo."

The girl made a few motions with her hands, and the taller man just scoffed as he brought a hand to his forehead.

"Yes, your ice cream is in the freezer; and no, I didn't have any." The girl gave him a smug grin in return and skipped over to the kitchen to fix herself a snack.

A few minutes later, the two sat next to each other on the sofa in the now lamp lit room, both glad to have each other's presence nearby again. Neo was engrossed in watching a favorite show of hers and eating her frozen treat, while Roman was rereading his favorite book and taking occasional appreciative glances at his partner.

'Just another day in the city.'

* * *

**(Atlas)**

Meanwhile, Jaune and the rest of the joint squad between teams JCKP and WICK were assembled in team JCKP's room. Jaune had decided that Whitley made a good point a few weeks back, and that he should go ahead and share his reason for being in Atlas with the rest of the squad. It helped his confidence approaching the issue when his three teammates and Whitley told him that he'd have their full support.

After unveiling his secret to his friends, there was a brief silence as Ivori, Ciel, and Kobalt seemed to be in thought over what they'd just been told. After a few more minutes of tense silence, it was Ivori who spoke up first.

"I don't see the problem."

The comment got a look of relief from Jaune and his team, as well as Whitley, but Ciel and Kobalt gave him a look that wanted an explanation of his reasoning.

"Besides you, no one got hurt. You accepted the risks the moment you decided you wanted to be one of us. Granted, you technically broke the law to get a chance, but it shows you have resolve."

The tan teen gave a smile and looked over to the other two who hadn't decided yet, and unsurprisingly, it was Kobalt who made his decision next.

"On one hand, you put your teammates at extra risk by having a non-trained combatant with them, making you a liability," This got a wince from the blonde as he nodded in response to the blue-haired teen's words.

"but on the other hand, I've known you for a few months. And the Jaune I know would've risked his life to protect any of theirs. So, there's no reason for me to be upset with you as far as I can see." With that the blonde perked up and met his squad mate in a fist bump, before waiting on Ciel's verdict.

A few more minutes passed before Jaune was about to call her name, but she stood up and began to address him.

"I don't like how you got enrolled."

This made the mood take a turn, as everyone's faces were either apprehensive or straight worried at Ciel's impression of the blonde would be.

"I don't like that you broke the law to do it. And I hate that you waited this long to tell us." For a good minute, nothing else was said as the dark-skinned girl sat there with her legs crossed, and it felt as if no one breathed since it was so devoid of sound, before finally, the beret wearing girl sighed and continued.

"But. You had your reasons, and it sounds like you're a victim of circumstance rather than someone without a spine." As she said this, more than a few sighs of relief went through the group before the girl continued.

"If you had come here after everything you told us happened and put zero effort into improving after being named a leader, then there wouldn't be any hope of us ever working together. But you train longer than any of us, you study just as hard as us, and you still find time to be a friend. So, I suppose I can still accept you as one of my leaders."

The girl stood from where she sat and reached a hand towards the blonde, who shook it earnestly, before a grin came over him as he took the center of the room to get his team's attention.

"Alright guys, so you know how I told you about my former friends back at Beacon? And you know how we're supposed to basically be a PR squad?" This got a round of nods from Jaune's friends as he began to let them in on his plan that had been cooking for months.

"Well, a few good people over there were nice enough to, oh I don't know, record my former friends during their joint training sessions for me." This caught the knightly teen's friends by surprise, and it was Whitley who recovered first and decided to question his friend.

"Just how long have you been planning this…" The blonde met his friend with a smirk.

"Since the moment I withdrew from Beacon. I've been planning on showing up and beating them in the Vytal. But that was before I met you guys." The blonde looked up to the ceiling, thinking about how far he'd come so far, and the bonds he made to this point before he smiled and continued speaking.

"Beating them in the Vytal isn't good enough. I want to win and show everyone what we can do." The teens around the room looked at Jaune with a bit more respect before they grew smiles of their own. The blonde turned to Whitley and pulled out his scroll while he addressed him.

"I have _her _and her team's recordings on here too." The white-haired teen took a moment to think about what his friend was implying before his eyes widened. The youngest of the Schnee siblings stood still for a moment before he began to chuckle with a smirk on his face.

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's start analyzing what our future opponents are capable of." Everyone began to shift around the room while Jaune moved the data from his scroll to his computer so that him and his friends could watch the recordings on a slightly larger screen, and once everyone was comfortable, he sat down on the chair next to the desk and hit play.

"So first up, team RWBY, they like to use team attacks and…"

From where Penny sat, she looked on fondly at her partner and with a bit of what she could only assume was pride. He'd found the courage to tell his deepest secrets to their friends, and now, she felt somewhat conscious of her own.

As she listened to her precious partner and her squad mates ask and answer questions to each other, she let herself remember the conversation she'd had in private with her father once she returned from Vale.

* * *

**(Flashback, Two Weeks Ago, Atlas)**

The normally excitable android walked calmly towards her father's private laboratory and office within Atlas, her mind clouded with questions that arose after the brief moment her and her partner shared at Junior's club. When she attempted to enjoy the atmosphere like Jaune, the world stopped being the way she normally perceived it.

Sounds, no, the music made…something stir within her. The lights and the colors swirled around in her vision as she moved on the dancefloor, but made her feel…grounded? And then when her and her partner danced together?

Her cheeks reddened at the memory, and before long she sat in her father's laboratory as he prepared to run a full diagnostic test on her.

"Darling, you're not scheduled for another full diagnostic for two weeks; is something the matter?"

Truth be told?

"…I…don't know." She wanted to say more but kept staring down at her hands where they rested in her lap. Soon, one of Pietro's own larger hands laid itself upon her own, and she looked up to see her creator looking mildly concerned.

"Why don't you try telling me what going on then, I might be able to help." The girl gave the dark-skinned man a brief smile, before she let out a sigh and looked down again.

"Recently, I've been subject to strange feelings." The man's eyebrows rose before he leaned back in his chair as he stroked his beard.

"You don't say…and when did these feelings start?" The girl seemed to think for a moment before she'd managed to secure herself an answer.

"When Jaune and I went on our trip to Vale, the first night we were there, we ended up watching movies together in our room..." The girl blushed a bit, while her father began to hypothesize about what could have made her experience, what he prayed to the brothers, were emotions.

'Could something in the movies have triggered some sort of emotional response from Penny? But that's-' Before he could continue, the man's android daughter finally managed to finish her sentence.

"…while I sat in his lap as he ran his fingers through my hair…"

The man blinked in response.

Oh.

_Oh._

The man let a wide smile erupt on his face as he placed the scroll tablet down on the desk that his legged chair was resting beside.

"I see, tell me Darling, what else did you and that nice young man do?" The girl in response began to poke her index fingers together as she touched upon what the two of them did together in Vale, from him trying all sorts of foods for her to the night they went dancing. She also spoke of how Jaune's former group of friends from Beacon made an appearance and how vulnerable he looked, a rarely seen look of displeasure marring the girl's features as she did.

When she was done, her father wore a look that she couldn't quite place, but she knew he was positively ecstatic about something. The man made his chair take him to the center of the room as he held Penny's hand, guiding her gently beside him until they reached where the elderly man wished for them to be, and turned the chair so that he could face his daughter.

The chair powered down as he leaned forward and put both of his hands on the girl's shoulders before he began to speak.

"Darling, it sounds like you have the perfect partner in that young man." The girl responded with a small smile as she thought of the blonde before nodding her head to her creator.

"And judging from your time together in Vale, I daresay the two of you had a date." The girl paused at the word, but before she could defend the time between her and her blonde partner, she thought about the definition of a date in this context, and what that could have meant between her and her partner. And then her face turned a deeper red than her hair as she covered her face with her hands.

"Penny…look at me Darling." The girl kept her hands in place for a few extra seconds before letting them fall away as she looked into her father's eyes.

"There's nothing wrong with you at all. In fact, from what your telling me, we shouldn't be worried, we should happy." The man let his hands leave the girl's shoulders as he took one of her hands between both of his own and explained why.

"Those strange feelings are true, human emotions." The girl almost seemed alarmed at the revelation and didn't hesitate to question what the genius man meant.

"But you said that I might never develop such things since I'm an artificial human."

The man let her hand go before he walked over to the large white board on the wall and began drawing diagrams as he took a bit of a lecturer's tone.

"True. But I also said that whether you did or didn't would ultimately depend on you. It seems that your plethora of newfound friends, especially that partner of yours, helped you feel beyond what you were programmed." The man brought the girl closer so that she could see what he'd drew as she stood in silence.

"Emotions are what humans feel, and sure, you could let a stuffy old textbook tell you that they're just changes in your brain, we scientist still argue as to what emotions really are. Some believe that our emotions are feelings created by the mind, while others believe that they come from the soul."

"And which do you believe Father?" The question was driven by a desire to know more about herself, and the spectacled man answered in a way only he could.

"Personally, I believe that you need both. That's why when I created your intelligence, I didn't program you to feel certain things and not others, I made it so that you'd be capable of feeling any emotion that a person could. Once you had your mind, all I needed to do was give you a soul. Now the only things separating you from a human are all the inconsequential things like organs and blood and such."

The girl stood in thought over her father's words looking over the various quickly drawn diagrams that he'd displayed for her, before his words stole her from her thoughts.

"Let me ask you this Penny; what happens when you think of your partner?"

"I've been told that I tend to blush a lot whenever I'm around Jaune. And then the strangest thing happens. I get this…floaty feeling near my navel. It flutters, I think? It happens especially whenever we're alone together, and it makes me want to be around him more." The man gave a soft smile as he took off his glasses to clean them as he asked the girl a question.

"Would you like to know what that emotion is commonly called?" The girl nodded her head rapidly, ready to put a name to the emotion she was unfamiliar with. In no rush, Pietro put his glasses back on as he answered the girl.

"Love."

* * *

**(Present)**

The joint squad between teams JCKP and WICK had finished their first official strategy meeting, having discussed making shared training sessions a more frequent occurrence, as well as the steps both teams would take to be at or surpass their future foes' levels come the Vytal Festival.

The blonde was on the rooftop again, stuck in his thoughts remembering his last night in Vale. He'd accepted the apology of the ginger berserker he'd once called a friend, but he'd made it clear to the girl that he wasn't ready to forgive her, not yet.

Of course, when he told her this, she looked as if she'd begin bawling again at any moment, before a sudden realization passed in her head.

Jaune had said 'yet'.

When she asked him about what that meant, the knightly teen explained that he was still deeply hurt by their actions, but at the same time, he wanted to let the past be just that, the past. And before he knew it, he did something he still wasn't sure he regretted or not. He made a promise.

A promise that he'd try and find whatever it was that kept him from letting go of that day and move past it, and that once he'd managed to do that, then he'd be able to forgive her. The hammer wielder stood across from him with tear tracks staining her cheeks, before she wrote down her scroll I.D. before walking back towards Junior's bar unlike her usual self.

As the blonde looked down at the piece of paper he'd kept from his former teammate, he wondered when that day would come.

Yes; when.

After all, Arc or not, Jaune always made good on his promises.

* * *

**(A/N)**

**Last chapter of the year.**

**Gotta say, I'm ready for this year to be over, and for us to never speak of it again.**

**But besides that, I hope you all had a Happy Holiday season, and that you continue on to have a fantastic New Year!**

**Link to the discord, as usual, is below!**

** /dSbQbK7FTy**

**Besides that, thanks for all the support Y'all have given me over this year.**

**I began writing this story as something only for me to read, then a friend got to read it, then told me I should put it out, and now, here we are. It really is a nice way to relax, writing such a long story.**

**I love reading your comments, and I'll see you in the new year!**

**B.J.H.**


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